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THREE TIMES THEY BROKE SPEARS 


JALES FROM 

TENNYSON 


B Y 

MOLLY K. BELLEW 

EDITOR OF 

“Tales From Longfellow” 

“ Dickens’ Christmas Stories for Children 

Etc., Etc. 


Illustrated by H. S. Campbell 



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C] 

JAMIESON 

PU] 

HICAGO 

-HIGGI] 

BLISHERS 

NfS CO. 



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THE LIBRARY OF 
CONfSRESg, 

Two C<>pip.i> Reocived, 

SEP. 22 1902 

Cnf^lOHT ENTRV 

CLASS CL^ XXo Mo. 

2 ^ i'l S 

COPY '3. 


Copyright, 1902 

BY 

Jamikson-Higqins Co. 


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Press of James McKinney & Co , Chicago. 




CONTENTS. 


The Comins: of King Arthur . . . . 9 

Gareth and Lynette . . . ' . . . 29 

The Marriage of Geraint 46 

Geraint’s Quest of Honor ..... 64 

Merlin and Vivien . . . . . -85 

Balin and Balan 

'^Lancelot and Elaine 104 

yfhe Holy Grail 119 

Pelleas and Ettarre ij2 

The Last Tournament 142 

jA'he Passing of Arthur 150 


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To my Young Readers. 

Alfred Lord Tennyson was the typically English poet, and 
none, perhaps not even Shakespeare, has appealed so keenly 
to the human heart. No other man^s poems have caused 
as many readers to shed tears of sympathy nor have awak- 
ened higher sentiments in the human heart. The critics 
^agree in pronouncing him the ideal poet laureate. In his 
^‘Idylls from the King’^ are found the loftiest and proudest 
deeds of English history and even in the retelling of these 
in prose the high spirit that is an inspiration to the noblest 
deeds cannot fail to be preserved. 


MOLLY K BELLEW. 





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THE COMING OF KING ARTHUR. 


/^VER a thousand years ago everybody was talking about 
the wonderful King Arthur and his brilliant Knights of 
the Round Table, who everywhere were pursuing bold quests, 
putting to rout the band of outlaws and robbers which in 
those days infested every highway and by-way of the coun- 
try, .going to war with tyrannical nobles, establishing law and 
order among the rich, redressing the wrongs of women, the 
poor and the oppressed, and winning glorious renown for 
their valor and their successes. 

That was in England which at that time was not England as 
it is today, all one kingdom under a single ruler, but was 
divided into many bits of kingdoms each with its own king 
and all warring against each other. Arthur’s kingdom was the 
most unpeaceful of all. This was because for twenty years or 
more, ever since the death of old King Uther, the country had 
been without a ruler. Old King Uther had died about a 
score of years before without leaving an heir to the throne, 
and all the nobles of the realm had immediately gon6 to war 
with one another each trying to get the most land and each 
trying to get the throne for himself. 

Suddenly, however, old Merlin, the wizard who had been 
King Ether’s magician, appeared one day in the royal council 
hall with a handsome young man, Arthur, and declared him to 
be the king of the realm. Arthur was crowned and for a time 
the nobles were quiet, for he ruled with a strong hand of iron, 
put down all the evils in his kingdom and everywhere gave 


10 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


it peace and order. People in every part of the island sent for 
him and his knights, begging him to come to help them out 
of their difficulties. But presently the nobles became trouble- 
some again; they said that Arthur was not the true king, 


that he was not the son of 
Uther and that, therefore, 
he had no right to reign 
over them. So there was 
fighting and unrest again, 
and in the midst of it 
Leodogran, the king of 
the Land of Cameliard, 
asked Arthur to come with 
his knights and drive away 
the enemies besetting 
him on every side. The 
country of Cameliard had 
gone to waste and ruin, 
because of the continual 



OLD MERLIN APPEARS. 


warfare that was waged with the kings that lived in the little 
neighboring countries and a mass of wild-eyed foreign heathen 
peoples who invaded the land. And so it happened that Came- 
liard was ravaged with battles, its strong men were cut down 
with the sword and wild dogs, wolves, and bears from the tangled 
weeds came rooting up the green fields and wallowing 
into the palace gardens. Sometimes the wolves stole 
little children from the villages and nursed them like 
their own cubs, until finally these children grew up into a race 
of wolf-men who molested the land worse than the wolves 
themselves. Then another king fought Leodogran, and at 
last the heathen hordes came swarming from over the seas 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


11 


and made all the earth red with his soldiers ’ blood, and they made 
the sun red with the smoke of the burning homes of his people. 

Leodogran simply did not know which way to turn for help 
until at last he thought of young Arthur of the Round Table 
who recently had been 
crowned king. So Leo- 
dogran sent for Arthur 
beseeching him to come 
and help him, for be- 
tween the men and the 
beasts his country was 
dying. 

King Arthur and 
his men welcomed the 
chance and went at 
once into the .Land of 
Cameliard to drive 
away the heathen ma- 
rauders. As he marched 
with his men past the 
castle walls, pretty Prin- 
cess Guinevere stood 
outside to watch the 
glittering soldiers go by. 

Among so many richly 
dressed knights she 
did not particularly no- 
tice Arthur, for he wore nothing to show that he was king, 
although his kingly bearing and brave forehead might suggest 
leadership. But no royal arms were engraved upon his helmet 



PRINCESS GUINEVERE. 


12 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 



HE LED HIS WARRIORS BOLDLY. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


13 


or his shield, and he carried simple weapons not nearly so 
gorgeously emblazoned as those of some of the others. 

Although Guinevere did not see the fair young King, Arthur 
spied her beside the castle wall ; he felt the light of her beauti- 
ful eyes glimmering out int(5 his heart and setting it all aflame 
with a fire of love for her. 

He led his warriors boldly to the forests where they pitched 
their tents, then fought all the heathen until they scampered 
away to their own territories, he slew the frightful wild beasts 
that had plundered the fields, cut down the forest trees so as 
to open out roads for the people of Cameliard to pass over from 
one part of their land to' the other, then he traveled quietly 
away with his men, back to fight his own battles in his own 
country. For there was fighting everywhere in those days. 
But all the time in Arthur’s heart, while he was doing those 
wonderful things for Leodogran, he was thinking still, not of 
Leodogran, but of the lovely Guinevere, and yearning for her. 

If only she could be his queen he thought they two together 
could rule on his throne as one strong, sweet, delicious life, and 
could exert a mighty power over all his people to make them 
good and wise and happy. Each day increased his love until 
he could not bear even to think for a moment of living without 
her. So from the very field of battle, while the swords were 
flashing and clashing about him, as he fought the barons and 
great lords who had risen up against him, Arthur dispatched 
three messengers to Leodogran, the King of Cameliard. 

These three messengers were Ulfius, Brastias and Bedivere, 
the very first knight Arthur had knighted upon his throne. 
They went to Leodogran and said that if Arthur had been of any 
service to him in his recent troubles with the heathen and the 


14 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


wild beasts, he should give the Princess Guinevere to be Arthur’s 
wife as a mark of his good will. 

Well, when they had said this, Leodogran did not know what 



ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN 


to do any better than when the heathen and the beasts had 
come upon him. For while he thought Arthur a very bold 
solidier and a very fine man, and, although he felt very grateful 
indeed to him for all the great things he had done, still he was 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


15 


not certain that Guinevere ought to marry him. For, as 
Guinevere was the daughter of a king she should become the 
wife of none but the son of a king. And Leodogran did not 
know precisely who this King Arthur was; but he did know 
that the barons of Arthur’s court had burst out into this 
uproar against him because they said he was not their true 
king and not the son of King Uther who had reigned before him. 
Some of them declared him to be the child of Gerlois, and others 
avowed that Sir Anton was his father. 

As poor, puzzled Leodogran knew nothing about the matter 
himself, he sent for his gray-headed trusty old chamberlain, who 
always had good counsel to give him in any dilemma; and he 
asked the chamberlain whether he had heard anything certainly 
as to Arthur’s birth. The chamberlain told him that there 
were just two men in all the world who knew the truth with 
respect to Arthur and where he had come from, and that both 
these men were twice as old as himself. One of them was 
Merlin the wizard, the other was Bleys, Merlin’s teacher in 
magic, who had written a book of his renowned pupil’s wonders, 
which probably related everything regarding the secret of 
Arthur’s birth. 

If King Arthur had done no more for me in my wars than 
you have just now in my present trouble, ” the king answered 
the chamberlain, ‘T would have died long ago from the wild 
beasts and the heathen. Send me in Ulfius and Brastias and 
Bedivere again. ” 

So the chamberlain went out and Arthur’s three men came 
into Leodogran who spoke to them this way: “ I have often 
seen a big cuckoo chased by little birds and understood why 
such tiny birds plagued him so, but why are the nobles in 
your country rebelling against their king and saying that he 


16 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


is not the son of a king. Tell me whether you yourselves 
think he is the child of King Uther. ’ ’ 

Ulfias and Brastias answered immediately “yes/’ but 
Bedivere, the first of all Arthur’s knights, became very bold 
when anyone slandered his sovereign and he replied: Sir 





SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT 

King, there are all sorts of stories about that; some of the nobles 
hate him just because he is good and they’ are wicked; they 
cry out that he is no man because his ways are gentler than 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


17 


their rough manners, while others again think he must be 
an angel dropped from heaven. But I will tell you the facts 
as I know them, King Uther and Gerlois were rivals long ago ; 
they both loved Ygerne. And she was the wife of Gerlois and 
had no sons, but three daughters, one of them the Queen of 
Orkney who has clung to Arthur like a sister. The two rivals, 
Gerlois and Uther went to war with each other and Gerlois 
was killed in battle ; then Uther quickly married the winsome 
Ygerne, the widow of Gerlois, for he loved her dearly and im- 
patiently. In a few months Uther died, and on that very 
night of his death Arthur was born. And as soon as he was 
born they carried him out by a secret back gateway to Merlin 
the magician, to be brought up far away from the court so 
that no one would hear about him until he was grown up 
ready to sit upon Uther ’s, his father, throne. 

“ For those were wild lords in those years just like these of 
today, always struggling for the rule, and they would have 
shattered the helpless little prince to pieces had they known 
about him. So Merlin took the baby and gave him over to 
old Sir Anton, a friend of Uther ’s, and Sir Anton's wife tended 
Arthur with her own little ones so that nobody knew who he 
was or where he had come from. But while the prince was 
growing up the kingdom went to weed; the great lords and 
barons were fighting all the time among themselves and nobody 
ruled. But during this present year Arthur's time for ascend- 
ing the throne had come, so Merlin brought him from out of 
his hiding place, set him in the palace hall and cried out to all 
the lords and ladies, ‘This is -Uther 's heir, your king!' Of 
course, none of them would have that. A hundred voices cried 
back immediately: ‘ Away with him! he is no king of ours, that's 
the son of Gerlois, or else the child of Anton, and no king. ’ 


.18 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


In spite of this opposition Merlin was so crafty and clever he 
won the day for the people, who were clamoring for a king and 
were glad to see Arthur crowned. But after it all was over 
the lords banded together and broke out in open war against 
Arthur. That is the whole story of this war. ’ ’ 

Although pleased with Bedivere’s good account of Arthur, 
yet when it was ended Leodogran scarcely felt satisfied. Was 
Bedivere right, he thought to himself, or were the barons right? 
As he sat pondering over everything in his palace, three great 
visitors came to the castle; these were the Queen of Orkney, 
the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne, with her two sons, Gawain 

and Modred. Leodogran 
made a great feast for 
them and while entertain- 
ing them at table re- 
membered what Bedivere 
had said about Arthur 
and this queen. So he 
turned to the queen and 
remarked : 

'' An insecure throne is 
no better than a mass of 
ice in a summer’s sea; it 
all melts away. You are 
from Arthur’s court: tell 
me, do you think this king 
with his few loyal Knights 
of the Round Table can 
triumph over the re- 
bellious lords, and keep 
his throne?” 



TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


19 


“ 0 King, they are few indeed, ’’ the Queen of Orkney cried, 
‘‘but so bold and true, and all of one mind with him. I was 
there at the coronation when the savage yells of the nobles 
died away, and Arthur sat crowned upon the dais with all his 
knights gathered round him to do his service for him forever. 
Arthur in low, deep tones, with simple words of great authority 
bound them to him with such wonderfully rigid vows that when 
they rose from their knees one after the other, some of them 
looked as pale as if a ghost had passed by them, others were 
flushed in their faces, and yet others seemed dazed and blind 
with their awe as if not fully awake. Then he spoke to them, 
cheering them with divine words that are far more than my 
tongue can ever tell you, and while he spoke every face flashed, 
for just a moment with his likeness, and from the crucifix 
above, three rays in green, blue, scarlet, streamed across upon 
the bright, sweet faces of the three tall fair queens, his friends 
who stood silently beside his throne, and who will always be 
ready to help him if he is in need. 

“Merlin, the magician, came there too, with his hundred 
years of art like so many hands of vassals to wait upon the 
young king. Near Merlin stood the mystical, marvelous Lady 
of the Lake, who knows a deeper magic than Merlin’s own, 
dressed in white. A mist of incense curled all about her 
and her face was fairly hidden in the dim gloom But when 
the holy hymns were sung a voice like flowing waters 
sounded through the music. It was the voice of the Lady 
of the Lake who lives in the lowest waters of the lake 
where it is always calm, no matter what storms may blow 
over the earth and who when the waves tumble and roll above 
her can walk out upon their crests just as our Lord did. 

“7/ was she who gave Arthur his remar Excalibur, 


20 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


with its hilt like a cross wherewith he drove away the heathen 
for you. That strange sword rose up from out the bosom 
of the lake, and Arthur rowed over in a little boat and took it. 
The sword is incrusted with rich jewels on the hilt, with a 
blade so bright that 
men are blinded by it. 

On one side the words 
‘Take me’ are graven 
upon it in the oldest 
language of the world, 
while on the other side 
the words ‘ Cast me 
away ’ are carved in the 
tongue that you speak. 

‘ ‘Arthur became very 
sad when he saw thc 
second inscription, but 
Merlin advised him to 
take the beautiful blade 
and use it ; he told him 
that now was the time 
to strike and that the 
time to cast away was 

„ r, ^ SHE GAVE ARTHUR HIS REMARKABLE SWORD. 

very, very far off. So 

Arthur took the tremendous sword and with it he will beat 
down his enemies. King Leodogran. ” 

Leodogran was pleased with the queen’s worcfs, but he 
wished to test the story Bedivere had told him, so he looked 
into her eyes narrowly as he observed, with a question in his 
tones, “The swallow and the swift are very near kin, but you 



TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


21 


are still closer to this noble prince as you are his own dear 
vsister. ” 

“ I am the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne, ’’she answered. 

Yes, that is why you are Arthur’s sister, ’’the king returned 
still questioningly. 

‘‘These are secret things, ” the Queen of Orkney replied, and 
she motioned with her hand for her two sons to leave her alone 
in the room with the king. 

Gawain immediately skipped away singing, his hair flying 
after and frolicked outside like a frisky pony, hut cunning 
Modred laid his ear close beside the door to listen, so that he half 
heard all the strange story his mother told the king. This is 
what the queen said in the beginning to the king. 

“ What should I know about it? 
For my mother’s hair and eyes 
were dark, and so were the eyes 
and hair of Gerlois, and Uther 
was dark too, almost black, but 
the King Arthur is fairer than 
anyone else in Britain. However, 
I remember how my mother used 
often to weep and say, ‘ 0 that 
you had some brother, pretty lit- 
tle one, to guard you from the 
rough ways of the world. ” 

“Yes? She said that?” Leo- 
dogran rejoined, “but when did 
you see Arthur first?” 

“0 king, I will tell you all 
about it,” cried the Queen of 
Orkney. “ Once when I was a little bit of a girl and had been 



CUNNING MODRED BESIDE THE DOOR 
TO LISTEN 


22 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


beaten for some childish fault that I had not committed, I ran 
outside and flung myself on a grassy bank and hated all the 
world and everything in it, and wished I were dead. But all 
of a sudden little Arthur stood by my side. I don’t know how 
he came or anything about it. Perhaps Merlin brought him, 
for Merlin, they say, can walk about and nobody see him, if 
he will, but any rate, Arthur was there by my side, comforting 
me and drying my tears. After that Arthur came very often 
without anybody knowing it and we were children together, and 
in those golden days I felt sure he would be king. 

“ But now I must tell you about Bleys, the old wizard who 
taught the magician Merlin. You know they both served King 
Uther, and just a little while ago when Bleys died he sent for 
me. He said he had something to tell me that I must know 
before he left the world. He said that they two. Merlin and 
he, sat beside the bed of King Uther on the night when the 
king passed away, moaning and wailing because he left no heir 
to his throne. After the king’s death as Merlin and Bleys 
walked out from the castle walls into the dismal misty night, 
they saw a wonderful fairy-ship shaped like a winged dragon 
sailing the heavens, with shining people collected on its decks ; 
but in the twinkling of an eye the ship was gone. 

Then Merlin and Bleys passed down into the cove by] the 
seashore to watch the billows, one after the other, as they 
lapped up against the beach. And as they looked at last a 
great wave gathered up one-half of the ocean and came full 
of voices, slowly rising and plunging, roaring all the while. 
Then all the wave was in a flame; and down in the wave and 
in the flame they saw lying a naked babe that was carried by 
the water to Merlin’s very feet. 

“ The king!’ cried Merlin. ‘ Here’s an heir for Uther. ’ 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


23 


‘‘Then as old Merlin spoke the fringe of that terrible great 
flaming breaker lashed at him as he held up the baby ; it rose 
up round him in a mantle of fire so that he and the child were 
clothed in fire. Then suddenly there was a calm, the stars 
looked out and the sky was open. 

“ ‘And this same child, ’ Bleys whispered to me, ‘ is the young 
king who reigns. And I could not die in peace unless the story 
had been told. ’ Then Bleys passed away into the land where 
nobody can question him. 

“So I came to Merlin to ask him whether that was all true 
about the shining dragon-ship and the tiny bare baby floating 
down from heaven over on the glory of the seas; but Merlin 
just laughed, as he always does, and answered me in the riddles 
of the old song, this way: 

“ Tiain, rain and sun! a rainbow in the sky! 

A young man will be wiser by and by; 

An old man ’s wit may wander ere he die. 

Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow on the lea! 

And truth is this to me and that to thee; 

And truth or clothed or naked let it be. 

Rain, sun and rain! and the free blossom blows; 

Sun, rain and sun! and where is he who knows. 

From the great deep to the great deep he goes! ^ 

“ It vexed me dreadfully to have Merlin be so tantalizing; but 
you must not be afraid, king, to give your only child Guinevere 
to this King Arthur. For great poets will sing of his brave 
deeds in long years after this; and Merlin has said, and not 
joking, either, that *even although Arthur’s enemies may 
wound him in battle he will never, never die, but will only pass 
away for a time, for a little while, and then will come to us 


24 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


again. And Merlin says too, that sometime Arthur is going 
to trample all the heathen kings under his feet until all the 
nations and all the men will call him their king. 

It pleased Leodogran tremendously to hear what the Queen of 
Orkney told him of Arthur, and when she had ended he lay 
thinking over it all, still puzzled as to whether he should say 
‘‘yes’’ or “no” to the ambassadors whom Arthur had sent. 
As he lay buried in his thoughts he grew very, very drowsy 
and dreamy, and at last, he fell asleep. And while he slept 
he saw a wonderful vision in a dream. 

There was a strange, sloping land, rising before his eyes, that 
ascended higher and higher, field after field, to a very great 
height and at the top there was a lofty peak hidden in the 
heavy, hazy clouds; and on the peak a phantom king stood. 
One moment the king was there, and the next moment he was 
gone, while everything below him was in a frightful confusion, 
a battle with swords, and the flocks of sheep and cattle falling 
back, and all the villages burning and their smoke rolling up 
in streams to the clouded pinnacle of the peak where the king 
stood in the fog, hiding him the more. Now and then the king 
spoke out through the haze, and some one here or there beneath 
would point upward toward him, but the rest all went on 
fighting. They cried out, “He is no king of ours, no son of 
Ether’s, no king of ours.” Then in a twinkling the dream 
all changed; the mists had quite blown aw^ay, the solid earth 
below the peak had vanished like a bubble and only the wonder- 
ful king remained, crowned with his diadems, standing in the 
heavens. 

Then Leodogran while still looking at him woke from his sleep. 
He called for Ulfius and Brastias and Bedevere, and when they 
had come into this presence he told them that Arthur should 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


25 


marry the fair Princess Guinevere, and he sent them galloping 
back to Arthur’s court. 

That was a joyful day for King Arthur when the three knights 
delivered King Leodogran’s message. He made ready at once 
for his sweet queen. He picked out Lancelot, his favorite 
Knight of the Round Table, whom he loved better than any 
other man in all the world, to ride over into the Land_ of 
Cameliard and bring back Guinevere for his bride. And as 
Lancelot mounted his 
dancing steed and rode 
away Arthur watched him 
from the palace gates, 
thinking of the lovely 
lady who would ride by 
his side when he returned. 

Lancelot’s horse tram- 
pled away among the 
flowers; for it was April 
when he left the court of 
Arthur, and just one 
month later he came 
riding back among the 
flowers of the May-time. 

Guinevere was with him 
on her graceful palfrey. 

Then Dubric, the head 
of the whole church in 
Britain, went out to meet 
her. Happy Arthur was 
there too. They were 
married in the greatest 



26 


TALES FKOM TENNYSON. 


and noblest church in the land before the stately altar, with all 
the Knights of the Round Table dressed in stainless white 
clothes, gathered about them. And all the knights were as 
delighted as they could be because their king was so glad. 



Holy Dubric spread out his hands above the King and the 
lovely Queen to call down the blessings of heaven, and he said: 

“Reign, King, and live and love, and make the world better, 
and may your queen be one with you, and may all the Knights 
of the Order of the Round Table fulfill the boundless pur- 
poses of their king/ ’ 

There was spread a glorious marriage feast. Great lords 


TALES FROM TEA NY SON. 


27 


came thither from far away Rome, which once was the mistress 
of all the world, but' now was slowly fading away. These 
Roman lords called for the tribute from Arthur that they had 
always received from Britain ever since Caesar with his Roman 
legions had conquered it long years before. 

But Arthur, the king and bridegroom, pointed to his snowy 
knights and said : “ These knights of mine have sworn to fight 
for me in all my wars and to worship me as their king. The old 
order of things has passed away and a new order will take its 
place. We are fighting for our fair father Christ, while you 
have been growing so f eeble and so weak and so old that 
you cannot even drive away the heathen from your Roman 
walls any more. So we will not pay tribute to you nor be 
your slaves. This is to be our own free country which we will 
defend and maintain.’’ 

The great lords from Rome drew hack very angrily and went 
home and told their king all about what Arthur had said. So 
Arthur had to battle with Rome, but he won in the end. 

Arthur trained his Knights of the Round Table so that they 
all felt like one great, vast strong man, all of one will. Thus he 
became mightier than any of the other kings in any part of 
Britain. And when he fought with them he always con- 
quered them. In that way he drew in all the little kingdoms 
under him, so that he was the one king of the land, and they all 
fought together for him. 

There were twelye great battles against the heathen hordes 
that had molested them from across the terrible seas, and 
each of these battles he won. So he made one great realm 
and he reigned over it, the king. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 





TALES FROM TENNYSON. 
GARETH AND LYNETTE. 


29 


Old King Lot and good Queen Bellicent had three sons. 
Gawain and Modred were Knights of the Round Table at 
Arthur’s court, and young Gareth, who was his mother’s pet, 
sighed to think he had to stay home and be cuddled and fon- 
dled like a baby boy instead of riding off like a venturesome 
soldier fighting gloriously for the king and winning a great 
name. 

‘‘There!” he cried impatiently, one chilly spring day as he 
stood by the brink of a rivulet and saw a bit of a pine tree 
caught from the bank by the dashing, swollen waters of the 
stream and whirled madly away. “That’s the way the king s 
enemies would fall before my spear, if I had a spear to use! 
That stream can do no more than I can, even although it is 
merely icy water all cold with the snows while I’m tingling with 
hot blood and have strong arms. When Gawain came homo 
last summer and asked me to tilt with him and Modred was 
the judge, didn’t I shake him so in his saddle that he said I had 
half overcome him? Humph! and mother thinks I’m still a 
child!” 

Gareth went in to the queen and said: “Mother, if you love 
me listen to a story I will tell. Once there was an egg which 
a great royal eagle laid high above on the rocks somewhere 
almost out of sight and there was a lad which saw the splendor 
sparkling from it, and the lightnings playing around it and 
the little birds crying and clashing in the nest. The boy 
thought if he could only reach that egg he would be richer 
than a houseful of kings, and he was nearly driven from his 
sense with his desire for it. But whenever he reached to clam- 
ber up for it some one who loved him restrained him saying. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 



MOTHER, IF YOU LOVE ME LISTEN TO A STORY I WILL TELL. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


31 


Of you love me do not climb, lest you break your neck.’ So 
the boy did not climb, mother, and he did not break his neck, 
but he broke his heart pining for the glorious egg. How can 
you keep me tethered here. Mother? Let me go !’ ’ 

‘‘ Have you no pity for me?’ ’ Queen Bellicent asked. “Stay 
here by your poor old father and me; chase the deer in our fir 
trees and marry some lovely bride I will get for you. You’re my 
best son and so young.’ ’ 

“Mother, a king once showed his son two brides and told him 
that he must either win the beautiful one, or, if he failed, wed 
the other. The pretty one was Fame and the other was 
Shame . Why should I follow the deer when I can follow the 
king ? Why was I born a man if I cannot do a man’s work ?’ ’ 

“ But some of the barons say he isn’t the true king.’ ’ 

“ Hasn’t he conquered the Romans and driven off the heathen 
and made, all the people free? Who has a right to be king if 
not the man who has done that? He is the true king.’ ’ 

W’'hen Bellicent found that she could not turn Gareth from 
his purpose, she said that if he was determined he must do 
one thing before he asked the king to make him a knight. 

“Anything,” cried Gareth. “Give me a hundred proofs. 
Only be quick.” 

The queen looked at him very slowly and said : “You are a 
prince, Gareth, but before you are fit to serve the king you mus 
go into Arthur’s court disguised and hire yourself to serve his 
meats and drink among the scullions and kitchen knaves. 
And you must not tell your name to anyone and you must 
serve that way for a year and a day.’ ’ 

The queen made this condition, thinking that Gareth would 
be too proud to play the slave. But he thought a moment, then 
answered : “A slave may be free in his soul, and I can see the 


32 


TALKS FROM TENNYSON. 


jousts there. You are my mother so I must obey you and I 
will be a scullion in King Arthur’s kitchen and keep my name 
a secret from everyone, even the king.’ ’ 

So Bellicent grieved and watched Gareth every moment 
wherever he went, dreading the time when he should leave. 
And he waited until one windy night when she slept, then called 
two servants and slipped away with them, all three dressed 
like poor peasants of the field. 

They walked away towards the south and as they came to the 
plain stretching to the mountain of Camelot, they saw the royal 
city upon its brow. Sometimes its spires and towers flashed in 
the sunlight; sometimes only the great gate shone out before 
their eyes, or again the whole fair town vanished away. Then 
the servants said : 

‘‘Let us go no further. Lord. It’s an enchanted city, and all 
a vision. The people say anyway, that Arthur isn’t the true 
king, but only a changeling from fairyland, and that Merlin 
won his battles for him with magic.” 

Gareth laughed and replied that he had magic enough in his 
blood and hopes to plunge old Merlin into the Arabian sea. 
And he pushed them on to the gate. There was no other gate 
like it under heaven. The Lady of the Lake stood barefooted 
on the keystone and held up the cornice. Drops of water fell 
from either hand and above were the three queens who were 
Arthur’s friends, and on each side Arthur’s wars were pictured 
in weird devices with dragons and elves so intertwined that 
they made men dizzy to look at them. The servants cried out, 
“Lord, the gateway is alive!” Then a blast of music pealed 
out of the city, and the three queens stepped aside while an 
old man with a long beard came out and asked : 

“ Who are you, my sons?’ ’ 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


33 


‘‘We are peasants/^ answered Gareth, “who have come to 
see the glories of your king, but the city looked so strange 
through the morning mist that my men are wondering whether 
it is not a fairy city or perhaps no city at all. So tell us the 
truth about it.’ ^ 

“Oh, it’s a fairy city,” the old man answered, “and a fairy 
king and queen came out of the mountain cleft at sunrise 
with harps in their hands and built it to music, which means it 
never was built at all, and therefore built forever.’ ’ 

“Why do you mock me so?’ ’ Gareth cried angrily. 

“ I am not mocking you so much as you are mocking me and 
every one who looks at you, for you are not what you seem, still 
I know what you truly are.” 

Then the old man turned away and Gareth said to his men : 
“Our poor little white lie stands like a ghost at the very be- 
ginning of our enterprise. Blame my mother’s love for it and 
not her nor me.” 

So they all laughed and came into the city of Camelot with its 
shadowy and stately palaces. Here and there a knight passed 
in or out, his arms clashing and the sound was good to Gareth’s 
ears. Or out of a casement window glanced the pure eyes of 
lovely women. But Gareth made at once for the hall of the 
king where his heart fairly hammered into his ears as he won- 
dered whether Arthur would turn him aside because of the 
half shadow of a lie he had told the old man by the gate about 
being a peasant. There were many supplicants coming before 
the king to tell him of some hurt done them by marauders or 
the wild beasts, and each one was given a knight by the king 
to help them. 

When Gareth’s turn came, he rested his arms, one on each 
servant, and stepped forward saying: “A boon. Sir King! 


34 


TA1.K8 FROM TENNYSON. 


Do you see how weak I seem, leaning on these men? Pray 
let me go into your kitchen and serve there for a year and a day, 
and do not ask me my name. After that I will fight for 
you.’’ 

‘‘You are a handsome youth,” said the king, “and worth 
something better from the king, but if that is what you wish, 
go and serve under the seneschal. Sir Kay, Master of the Meats 
and Drinks.” 

Sir Kay thought the boy had probably run away from the 
farm belonging to some Abbey where he had not had enough to 
eat, and he promised that if Gareth would work well he would 
feed him until he was as plump as a pigeon. 

But Lancelot, the king’s favorite, said to Kay: “You don’t 
understand boys as well as dogs and cattle. Can’t you see by 
this lad’s broad fair forehead and fine hands that he is nobly 
born? Treat him well or he may shame you.’ ’ 

“Fair and fine, forsooth,” cried Kay. “If he had been a 
gentleman he would have asked for a horse and armor.' ’ 

So he hustled and harried Garreth, set him to draw water, hew 
wood and labor harder than any of the grimy and smudgy 
kitchen knaves. Gareth did all with a noble sort of ease and 
graced the lowliest act, and when the knaves all gathered 
together of an evening to tell stories about Arthur on- the 
battlefields or of Lancelot in the tournament, Gareth listened 
delightedly or made them all, with gaping mouths, listen 
charmed, to some prodigious tale of his own about wonderful 
knights cutting their scarlet way through twenty folds of 
twisted dragons. AVhen there was a Joust and Sir Kay let him 
attend it, he went half beside himself in an ecstacy watching 
the warriors clash their springing spears, and the sniffing 
chargers reel. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


35 


At the end of the first month, lonely Queen Bellicent felt 
sorry for her poor, dear son, toiling and moiling among pots and 
pans, so she sent a servant to Camelot with the beaming armor 
of a knight and freed him from his vow. Gareth colored redder 
than any young girl and went alone in to the king and told him 
all. 



^^Make me your knight in secret,” he begged Arthur, ^^and 
give me the very next quest from your court!’ ’ 

“Son,” answered the king, “my knights are sworn to vows 
of utter hardihood, of utter gentleness, of utter faithfulness in 
love and of utter obedience to the king.’ ’ 



36 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Gareth sprang lightly from his knees: “My king, I can 
promise you for my hardihood; respecting my obedience, ask 
Sir Kay, and as for love I have not loved yet, but God willing 
some day I will, and faithfully.’ ’ 

The reply so pleased the great king, he laid his hand on 
Gareth’s arm and smiled and knighted him. 

A few days later a noble maiden with a brow like a May- 
blossom and a saucy nose passed 
into the king’s hall with her page 
and told Arthur that her name 
was Lynette, and that her beau- 
tiful sister, the Lady Lyonors lived 
in the Castle Perilous which w^as 
beset with bandit knights. 

“A river courses about the castle 
in three loops,” said she, “each 
loop has a bridge and every bridge 
is guarded by a wicked outlaw 
warrior. Sir Morning-star, Sir 
Noon-sun and Sir Evening-star, 
while a fourth called Death, a 
huge man-beast of boundless 
savageries, is besieging my sister 
A NOBLE MAIDEN WITH HER PAGE. in her own castle so as to break 

her will and make her wed with 
him. They are four fools,” cried the maiden disdainfully, 

‘ ‘ but they are mighty men so I have come to ask for Lancelot to 
ride away with me to help us.” 

Gareth was up in a twinkling with kindled eyes. “A boon. 
Sir King, this quest,” he cried. “I am only a knave from 



TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


37 


your kitchen, but I can topple over a hundred such fellows. 
Your promise, king. ” 

“You are rough and sudden and worthy to be a knight. 
Therefore go/^ said Arthur to the great amazement of the 
court. 

“ Fie on you. King! exclaimed Lynette in a fury. “ I asked 
you for your best knight, Lancelot, and you give me a slave 
from your kitchen, and she scampered down the aisle, leaped 
to her horse and flitted out of the weird white gate. “A 
kitchen slave 1’^ she sputtered as she flew. “Why didn’t the 
king send me a knight that fights for love and glory? ” 

Gareth in the meaintime had strode to the side doorway of 
the royalhall where the saw a war-horse awaiting him, the gift 
of Arthur and worth half the price of a town. His two servants 
stood by with his shield and helmet and spear. Dropping his 
coarse kitchen cloak to the floor, he instantly harnessed him- 
self in his armor leaped to the baok of his beautiful steed 
and flashed out of the gateway while all his kitchen mates 
threw up their caps and cried, “God bless the king and all his 
fellowship!” 

“Maiden, the quest is mine,” he said to Lynette as he over- 
took her, “ Lead and I follow. ” 

“Away with you!” she cried, nipping her slender nose. 
“You smell of kitchen grease. See there, your master is 
coming!’ 

Indeed she told the truth, for Sir Kay, infuriated with Gareth’s 
boldness in the king’s hall was hounding after them. ‘'Don’t 
you know me?” he shouted. 

“Yes, too well,” returned Gareth. “I know you to be the 
most ungentle knight in Arthur’s court. ” 

“ Have at me, then, ” cried Kay, whereupon Gareth pounced 


38 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


upon him with his gleaming lance and struck him instantly to 
the earth, then turned for Lynette and said again, “Lead and 
I follow.^ ^ 

But Lynette had hurried her galloping palfrey away and 
would not stop the beast until his heart had nearly burst with 
its violent throbbing. Then she turned and eyed Gareth as 
scornfully as ever. As he pranced to her side she observed: 

“ Do you suppose scullion, that I think any more of you now 
that by some good luck you have overthrown your master. 
You dishwasher and water-carrier, you smell of the kitchen 
quite as much as before.’ ’ 

“Maiden,” Gareth rejoined gently, “Say what you will, but 
whatever you say, I will not leave this quest until it is ended 
or I have died for it.” 

“0, my, how the knave talks! But- you’ll soon meet with 
another knave whom in spite of all the kitchen concoctions ever 
brewed, you’ll not dare look in the face.” ' 

“ I’ll try him,” answered Gareth with a smile that maddened 
Lynette. And away she darted again far into the strange 
avenues of the limitless woods. 

Gareth plunged on through the pine trees after her and a 
serving-man came breaking through the black forest - crying 
out, “They’ve bound my master and are throwing him into 
the lake!” 

“Lead and I follow,” cried Gareth to Lynette, and she led, 
plunging into the pine trees until they came upon a hollow sink- 
ing away into a lake, where six tall men up to their thighs in 
reeds and bulrushes were dragging a seventh man with a stone 
about his neck toward the water to drown him. 

Gareth sprang upon three and stilled them with his doughty 
blows, but three scurried away through the trees;. then Gareth 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


39 


loosened the stone from the gentleman and set him on his feet. 
He proved to be a baron and a friend of Arthur and asked 
Gareth what he could do to show his gratitude for the saving of 
his life. Gareth said he would like a night's shelter for the 
lady who was with him. So they rode over toward the grace- 
ful manor house where the baron lived, and as they rode he 
said to Gareth. 

‘‘ I believe you are of the Table,' ' meaning that Gareth was a 
Knight of the Round Table." 

“Yes, he is of the table after his own fashion," Lynette 
laughed, “for he serves in Arthur's kitchen." And turning 
toward Gareth she added, “Do not imagine that I admire you 
the more for having routed these miserable cowardly foresters; 
any thresher with his flail could have done that.' ' 

And when they were seated at the baron's table, Gareth by 
Lynette's side, she cried out to their host, “ It seems dreadfully 
rude in you. Lord Baron, to place this knave beside me. Listen 
to me : I went to King Arthur's court to ask for Sir Lancelot 
to come to help my sister, and as I ended my plea, up bawls 
this kitchen boy: ‘Mine's the quest.' And Arthur goes mad 
and sends me this fellow who was made to kill pigs and not 
redress the wrongs of women.' ’ 

So Gareth was seated at another table and the baron came 
to him and asked him whether it might not be better for him 
to relinquish his quest, but the lad replied that the king had 
given it to him and he would carry it through. The next 
morning he said again to proud Lynette, “ Lead and I follow.' ' 

But the maiden responded, “We are almost at the place 
where one of the knaves is stationed. Don't you want to go 
home? He will slay you and then I’ll go back to Arthur and 
shame liim for giving me a knight from his kitchen cinders.' ' 


40 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Just let me fight/ ^ cried Gareth, “and Idl have as good luck 
as little Cinderella who married the prince.’^ 

So they came to the first coil of the river and on the other 
side saw a rich white pavilion with a purple dome and a slender 
crimson flag fluttering above. The lawless Sir Morning-star 
paced up and down outside. 

“Damsel, is this the knight youVe brought me?’ ’ he shouted. 
“Not a knight, but a knave. The king scorned you so he 
sent some one from his kitchen.’ ’ 

“Come Daughters of the Dawn and arm me!” cried Sir 
Morning-star, and three bare-footed, bare-headed maidens in 
pink and gold dresses brought him a blue coat of mail and a 
blue shield. 

“A kitchen knave in scorn of me!” roared the blue knight. 

‘ ‘ I won’t fight him. Go home, knave ! It isn’t proper for you 
to be riding abroad with a lady.’ ’ 

“ Dog, you lie ! I’m sprung from nobler lineage than you,’ ’ 
and saying this, Gareth sprang fiercely at his adversary who 
met him in the middle of the bridge. The two spears were 
hurled so harshly that both knights were thrown from their 
horses like two stones but up they leaped instantly. Gareth 
drew forth his sword and drove his enemy back down the 
bridge and laid hiiii at his feet. 

“I yield, “ Sir Morning-star cried, “ don’t kill me.’ ’ 

“Your life is in the hands of this lady,’ ’ Gareth replied. “ If 
she asks me to spare you I will.’ ’ 

“Scullion!” Lynette cried, reddening with shame. “Do 
you suppose I will ask a favor of you?” 

“Then he dies,’ ’ and Gareth was about to slay the wounded 
knight when Lynette screamed and told him he ought not to 
think of killing a man of nobler birth than himself. So'Garethr 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


41 


said, Knight, your life is spared at this lady’s command. 
Go to King Arthur’s court and tell him that his kitchen knave 
- sent you, and crave his pardon for breaking his laws.” 

I thought the smells of the odors of the kitchen grew fainter 
while you were fighting on the bridge,” Lynette remarked to 
Gareth as he took his place behind her and told her to lead, 
‘‘ but now they are as strong as ever.’ ’ 

So they rode on until they arrived at the second loop of the 
river where the knight of the Noonday-Sun flared with his 
burning shield that blazed so violently that Gareth saw scarlet 
blots before his eyes as he turned away from it. 

Here’s a kitchen knave from Arthur’s hall who has over- 
thrown your brother,’ ’ Lynette called across the river to him. 

Ugh !” returned Sir Noonday-Sun, raising his visor to reveal 
his round foolish face like a cipher, and with that he pushed his 
horse into the foaming stream. 

Gareth met him midway and struck him four blows of his 
sword. As he was about to deal the fifth stroke the horse of 
the Noonday-Sun flipped and the stream washed his dazzling 
master away. Gareth plucked him out of the water and sent 
him back to King Arthur. 

“ Lead and I follow,’ ’ he said to Lynette. 

“ Do not fancy,” she rejoined, as she guided him toward the 
third passing of the river, ^That I thought you bold or brave 
when you overcame Sir Noonday-Sun; he just slipped on the 
river-bed. Here we are at the third fool in the allegory. Sir 
Evening-star. You see he looks naked but he is only wrapped 
in hardened skins that fit him like his own. They will turn 
the blade of your sword.” 

‘‘Never mind,” Gareth said, “the wind may turn again and 
the kitchen odors grow faint.’ ’ 


42 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Then Lynette called to the Evening-star : 

‘‘ Both of your brothers have gone down before this youth 
and so will you. Aren’t you old?’ ’ 

“Old with the strength of twenty boys,” said Sir Evening- 
star. 

“Old in boasting,” Gareth cried, “but the same strength 
that slew your brothers can slay you.’ ’ 

Then the Evening-star blew a deadly note upon his horn and 
a storm-beaten, russet, grizzly old woman came out and armed 
him in a quantity of dingy weapons. The two knights clashed 
together on the bridge and Gareth brought the Evening-star 
groveling in a minute to his feet on his knees. But the other 
vaulted up again so quickly that Gareth panted and half de- 
spaired of winning the victory. 

Then Lynette cried: “Well done, knave; you are as noble 
as any knight. Now do not shame me; I said you would win. 
Strike ! strike ! and the wind will change again.’ ’ 

Gareth struck harder, he hewed great pieces of armor from the 
old knight, but clashed in vain with his sword against the hard 
skin, until at last he lashed the Evening-star’s sword and broke 
it at the hilt. “ I have you now !’ ’ he shouted, but the cowardly 
knight of the Evening-star writhed his arms about the lad 
till Gareth was almost strangled. Yet straining himself to the 
uttermost he finally tossed his foe headlong over the side of the 
bridge to sink or to swim as the waves allowed. 

“ Lead and I follow,’ ’ Gareth said to Lynette. 

“No, it is lead no longer,” the maiden replied. “Ride be- 
side me the knightliest of all kitchen knaves. Sir I am ashamed 
that I have treated you so. Pardon me. I do wonder who 
you are, you knave.’ ’ 

“You are not to blame for anything,” Gareth said, “ except 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


43 


for your mistrusting of the king when he sent you some one 
to defend you. You said what you thought and I answered 
by my actions.’^ 

At that moment he 
heard the hoofs of a horse 
clattering in the road be- 
hind him. ‘‘Stay!’^ cried 
a knight with a veiled 
shield, “I have come to 
avenge my friend, Sir 
Kay.^^ 

Gareth turned, and in a 
thrice had closed in upon 
the stranger, but when he 
felt the touch of the 
stranger knight’s magical 
spear, which was the won- 
der of the world he fell to 
the earth. As he felt the 
grass in his hands he burst 
into laughter. 

^‘Why do you laugh?” 
asked Lynette. 

‘‘ Because here am I, the son of old King Lot and good Queen 
Bellicent, the victor of the three bridges, and a knight of Ar- 
thur’s thrown by no one knows whom.’ ’ 

“I have come to help you and not harm you,” said the 
strange knight, revealing himself. It was Lancelot, whom 
King Arthur had sent to keep a guardian eye upon young 
Gareth in this his first quest, to prevent him from being killed 
or taken away. 



TOSSED HIS FOE OVER THE SIDE OF THE 
BRIDGE. 


44 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


‘‘And why did you refuse to come when I wanted you, and 
now come just in time to shame my poor defender just when 
I was beginning to feel proud of him?’’ asked Lynette. 

“ But he isn’t shamed, ” Lancelot answered. “What knight 
is not overthrown sometimes? By being defeated we learn 
to overcome, so hail Prince and Knight of our Round Table!” 
“You did well Gareth, only you and your horse were a little 
weary.” 



Lynette led them into a glen and a cave where they' found 
pleasant drinks and meat, and where Gareth fell asleep. 

“You have good reason to feel sleepy, ” cried Lynette. 
“Sleep soundly and wake strong.” And she tended him as 



TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


45 


gently as a mother, and watched over him carefullj^ as he slept. 

When Gareth woke Lancelot gave him his own horse and 
shield to use in fighting the last awful outlaw, but as they drew 
near Lynette clutched at the shield and pleaded with him : 
‘‘Give it back to Lancelot, said §he. “0 curse my tongue 
that was reviling you so today. He must do the fighting now. 
You have done wonders, but you cannot do miracles. You 
have thrown three men today and that is glory enough. You 
will get all maimed and mangled if you go on now when you 
are tired. There, I vow you must not try the f ourth.’’ 

But Gareth told her ftiat her sharp words during the day 
had just spurred him on to do his best and he said he must 
not now leave his quest until he had finished. So Lancelot 
advised him how best to manage his horse and his lance, his 
sword and his shield when meeting a foe that was stouter than 
himself, winning with fineness and skill where he lacked in 
strength . 

But Gareth replied that he knew but one rule in fighting and 
that was to dash against his foe and overcome him. 

“ Heaven help you, ’’ cried Lynette, and she made her palfrey 
halt. “ There!'’ They were facing the camp of the Knight 
of Death. 

There was a huge black pavilion, a black banner and a black 
horn. Gareth blew the horn and heard hollow tramplings to 
and fro and muffled voices. Then on a night-black horse, in 
night-black arms rode forth the dread warrior. A white 
breast-bone showed in front. He spoke not a word which 
made him the more fearful. 

“Fool!" shouted Gareth sturdily. “People say that you 
have the strength of ten men; can't you trust to it without 
depending on these toggeries and tricks ? " 


46 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


But the Knight of Death said nothing. Lady Lyonors at 
her castle window wept, and one of her maids fainted away, 
and Gareth felt his head prickling beneath his helmet and 
Lancelot felt his blood turning cold. Every one stood aghast. 

Then the chargers bounded forward and Gareth struck 
Death to the ground. Drawing out his sword he split apart 
the vast skull; one half of it fell to the right and one-half to the 
left. Then he was about to strike at the helmet when out of it 
peeped the face of a blooming young boy, as fresh as a flower. 

“ 0 Knight!’ ’ cried the laddie. ‘‘Do not kill me. My three 
brothers made me do it to make a horror all about the castle. 
They never dreamed that anyone could pass the bridges.’ ’ 

Then Lady Lyonors with all her house had a great party of 
dancing and revelry and song and making merry because the 
hideous Knight of Death that had terrified them so was only 
a pretty little boy. And there was mirth over Gareth’s vic- 
torious quest. 

And some people say that Gareth married Lynette, but 
others who tell the story later say he wedded with Lyonors. 

THE MARRIAGE OF GERAINT. 

King Arthur had come to the old city of Caerleen on the 
River Usk to hold his court, and was sitting high in his royal 
hall when a woodman, all bedraggled with the mists of the 
forests came tripping up in haste before his throne. 

“0 noble King,” he cried, “today I saw a wonderful deer, 
a hart all milky white running through among the trees, and, 
nothing like it has ever been seen here before.’ ’ 

The king, who loved the chase, was very pleased and im- 
mediately gave orders that the royal horns should be blown 


TAT.es FITOM TENNYSON. 


47 


for all the court to go a hunting after the beautiful white deer 
the following morning. Queen Guinevere wished to go with 
them to watch the hounds and huntsmen and dancing horses 
in the chase. She slept late, however, the next day with her 



A WOODMAN ALL BEDRAGGLED CAME IN HASTE BEFORE 
HIS THRONE. 


pleasant dreams, and Arthur with his Knights of the Round 
Table had sped gloriously away on their snorting chargers 
when she arose, called one of her maids to come with her, 
mounted her palfrey and forded the River Usk to pass over by 
the forest 


48 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


There they climbed up on a little knoll and stood listening 
for the hounds, but instead of the barking of the king’s dogs 
they heard the sound of a horse’shoofs trampling behind them. 
It was Prince Geraint’s charger as he flashed over the shallow 
ford of the river, then galloped up the banks of the knoll to her 
side. He carried not a single weapon except his golden-hilted 
sword and wore, not his hunting-dress, but gay holiday silks 
with a purple scarf about him swinging an apple of gold at 
either end and glancing like a dragon-fly. He bowed low to 
the sweet, stately queen. 

‘^You’re late, very late. Sir Prince,” said she, “later even 
than we.” 

“Yes, noble queen,” replied Geraint, “I’m so late that 
I’m not going to the hunt; I’ve come like you just to watch 
it.” 

“Then stay with me,’ ’ the queen said, “ for here on this little 
knoll, if anywhere, you will have a good chance to see the 
hounds, often they dash by at its very feet.’ ’ 

So Geraint stood by the queen, thinking he would catch 
particularly the baying of Cavall, Arthur’s loudest dog, which 
would tell him that the hunters were coming. As they waited 
however, along the base of the knoll, came a knight, -a lady 
and a dwarf riding slowly by on their horses. The knight 
wore his visor up showing his imperious and very haughty 
young face. The dwarf lagged behind. 

“That knight doesn’t belong to the Round Table, does he?’ ’ 
asked the queen. ‘ ‘ I don’t know him.’ ’ 

“No, nor I,” replied Geraint. 

So the queen sent her maid over to the dwarf to find out 
the name of his master. But the dwarf was old and crotchety 
and would not tell her. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON*. 


49 


“Then I hi ask your master himself / ’ cried the maid. 


“No, indeed, you shall not!’^ cried the dwarf, “you are not 
fit even to speak of him,’^ and as the girl turned her horse to 
approach the proud young knight, the misshapen little dwarf 



HE STRUCK OUT HIS WHIP AND CUT THE PRINCE’S CHEEK. 


of a servant struck at her with his whip, and she came scamper- 
ing back indignantly to the queen. 

“Ell learn his name for you,'’ Geraint exclaimed, and he 
rode off sharply. 


50 


TAI.r:S FROM l^l^NNYSON. 


But the impudent dwarf answered just as before and when 
Prince Geraint moved on toward his master he struck out his 
whip and cut the prince’s cheek so that the blood streamed 
upon the purple scarf dyeing it red. Instantly Geraint reached 
for the hilt of his sword to strike down the vicious little midget 
but then remembering that he was a prince and disdaining to 
fight with a dwarf, he did not even say a word, but cantered 
back to Queen Guinevere’s side. 

“Noble Queen,” he cried fiercely. “I am going to avenge 
this insult that has been done you. I’ll track these vermin to 
the earth. For even although I am riding unarmed just now, 
as we go along I will come to some place where I can borrow 
weapons or hire them. And then when I have my man I’ll 
fight him, and on the third day from today I’ll be back again 
unless I die in the fight. So good-bye, farewell.’ ’ 

“Farewell, handsome prince,’ ’ the queen answered. “Good 
fortune in your quest and may you live to marry your first love 
whoever that may be. But whether she will be a princess or a 
beggar from the hedgerows, before you wed with her bring her 
back to me and I will robe her for her wedding day.’ ’ 

Prince Geraint bowed and with that he was off. One minute 
he thought he heard the noble milk-white deer brought to bay 
by the dogs, the next he thought he heard the hunter’s horn 
far away and felt a little vexed to think he must be following 
this stupid dwarf while all the others were at the chase But 
he had determined to avenge the queen and up and down] the 
grassy glades and valleys pursued the three enemies until at 
last at sundown they emerged from the forest, climbed up 
on the ridge of a hill where they looked like shadows against 
the dark sky, then sank again on the other side. 

Below on the other side of the ridge ran the long street of a 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


51 


clamoring little town in a long valley, on one side a new white 
fortress and on the other, across a ravine and a bridge, a fallen 
old castle in decay. The knight, the lady and the dwarf rode 
on to the white fortress, then vanished within its walls. 

‘‘ There! cried Geraint, ‘‘now I have him! I have tracked 
him to his hole, and tomorrow when I’m rested I’ll fight him. ” 

Then he turned wearily down the long street of the noisy 
village to look for his night’s lodging, but he found every inn 
and tavern crowded, and everywhere horses in the stables 
were being shod and young fellows were busy burnishing their 
master’s armor. 

“ AVhat does all this hubbub.mean?” asked Geraint of one of 
these youths. 

The lad did not stop his work one instant, but went on 
scouring and replied, “It’s the sparrow-hawk. ” 

As Prince Geraint did not .know wLat was meant by the 
sparrow-hawk he trotted a little farther ^long the street until 
he came to a quiet old man trudging by with a sack of corn 
on his back. 

“Why is your town so noisy and busy to-night, good old 
fellow?” he cried. 

“ Ugh ! the sparrow-hawk ! ” the old fellow said gruffly. 

So the prince rode his horse yet a little farther until he saw 
an armor-maker’s shop. The armor-maker sat inside with his 
back turned, all doubled over a helmet which he was riveting 
together upon his knee. 

‘ ‘ Armorer, ” cried Geraint, “what is going on? Why is there 
such a din? 

The man did not pause in his riveting even to turn about and 
face the stranger, but said quickly as if to finish speaking as 


52 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


rapidly as he could, ‘‘Friend, the people who are working for 
the sparrow-hawk have no time for idle questions. 

At this Geraint flashed up angrily. 

“A fig for your sparrow-hawk! I wish all the bits of birds 
of the air would peck him dead. You imagine that this little 
cackle in your baby town is all the noise and murmur of the 
great world. What do I care about it? It is nothing to me. 
Listen to me, now, if you are not gone hawk-mad like the rest, 
where can I get a lodging for the night, and more than that, 
where can I get some arms, arms, arms, to fight my enemy? 
Tell me. 

The hurrying armor-maker looked about in amazement to see 
this gorgeous cavalier in purple silks standing before his bit of 
a shop. 

‘ ‘ 0 pardon me, stranger knight said he very politely. ‘ ‘ We 
are holding a great tournament here tomorrow morning and 
there is hardly any time to do one-half the work that has to be 
finished before then. Arms, did you say? Indeed I cannot 
tell you where to get any; all that there are in this town are 
needed for to-morrow in the lists. And as for lodging, I donT 
know unless perhaps at Earl Yniol’s in the old castle across 
the bridge.^^ Then he again picked up his helmet and turned 
his back to the prince. 

So Geraint, still a wee mite vexed, rode over the bridge that 
spanned the ravine, to go to the ruined castle. There upon the 
farther side sat the hoary-headed Earl Yniol, dressed in some 
magnificient shabby old clothes which had been fit for a king’s 
parties when they were new. 

“Where are you going, son?” he queried of Geraint, waking 
from his reveries and dreaminess. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


53 


0 friend, Em looking for some shelter for the night,’' Ger- 
aint replied. 

‘‘Come in then, “ Yniol said, “and accept of my hospitality. 
Our house w-as rich once and now it is poor, but it always keeps 
its door open to the stranger. ” 

“Oh, anything will do for me,” cried Geraint. “If only 
you won’t serve me sparrow-hawks for my supper I’ll eat with 
all the passion of a whole day’s fast. ” 

The old earl smiled and sighed as he rejoined, “ I have more 
serious reason than you to curse this sparrow-hawk. But go 
in and we will not have a word about him even jokingly unless 
you wish it. ” 

Whereupon Geraint passed into the desolate castle court, 
where the stones of the pavement were all broken and over- 
grown with wild plants, and the turrets and walls were shattered 
As he stood awaiting the Earl Yniol, the voice of a young girl 
singing like a nightingale rang out from one of the open castle 
windows. 

It was the voice of Enid, Earl Yniol’s daughter as she sang 
the song of Fortune and her Wheel : 

“Turn, Fortune, thy wheel with smile or frown. 

With that wild wheel we go not up or down ; 

Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great. ” 

“The song of that little bird describes the nest she lives 
in, ” cried Earl Yniol approaching. ' “ Enter. ” 

Geraint alighted from his charger and stepped within the 
large dusky cobwebbed hall, where an aged lady sat, with Enid 
moving about her, like a little flower in a wilted sheath of a 
faded silk gown. 


54 


TALES FP.OM TENNYSON. 


^^Enid, the good knighEs horse is standing in the court/’ 
cried the earl. ‘Take him to the stall and give him some corn, 
then go to town and buy us some meat and wine. ” 



GERAINT STEPPED WITHIN THE DUSKY 
COBWEBBED HALL. 


Geraint wished that he might do this servant’s work instead 
of this pretty young lady, but as he started to follow her the 
old gray earl stopped him. 

“ We’re old and poor, ” he said, “ but not so poor and old as 
to let our guests wait upon themselves. ” • / 

So Enid fetched the wine and the meat and the cakes and the 



TALES FROM TENNYSON. ’ 


55 


bread; and ^slie served at the table while her mother, father 
and Geraint sat around. Geraint wished that he might stoop 
to kiss her tender little thumb as it held the platter when she 
laid it down. 



i;nid fetched the wine and the meat and 

THE CAKES. 


“Fair host and Earl/’ he said after his refreshing supper, 
“who is this sjiarrow-hawk that everybody in the town is 
talking about? And yet I do not wish you to give me his 
nairu', for perhaps he is the knight I saw riding into the new 
fortress the other side of the bridge at the other end of 


5G 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


the town. His name I am going to have from his own lips, 
for I am Geraint of Devon. This morning when the queen 
sent her maid to find out his name he struck at the girl with 
his whip, and IVe sworn vengeance for such a great insult 
done our queen, and have followed him to his hold, and as 
soon as I can get arms I will fight him. 

“And are you the renowned Geraint? cried Earl Yniol 
beaming. “ Well, as soon as I saw you coming toward me on 
the bridge I knew that you were no ordinary man. By the 
state and presence of your bearing I might have guessed 
you to be one of Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table at 
Camelot. Pray do not suppose that I am flattering you 
foolishly. This dear child of mine has often heard me telling 
glorious stories of all the famous things you have done for the 
king and the people. And she has asked me to repeat them 
again and again. 

“Poor thing, there never has lived a woman with such 
miserable lovers as she has had. The first wasLimours, who 
did nothing but drink and brawl, even when he was making 
love to her. And the second was the ‘sparrow-hawk,’ my 
nephew, my curse. I will not let his name slip from me if 
I can help it. When I told him that he could not marry 
my daughter he spread a false rumour all round here among 
the people that his father had left him a great sum of money 
in my keeping and that I had never passed it^over to him 
but had retained it for myself. He bribed all my servants Avith 
large promises and stirred up this whole little old town of 
mine against me, my own town. That Avas the night of 
Enid’s birthday nearly three A^ears ago. They sacked my 
house, ousted me from my earldom, thrcAv us into this dilapi- 
dated, dingy old place and built up that grand noAv Avhitc 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


57 


fort. He would kill me if he did not despise me too much 
to do so ; and sometimes I believe I despise myself for letting 
him have his way. I scarcely know whether I am very wise 
or very silly, very manly or very base to suffer it all so pa- 
tiently.^^ 

‘AVell said,’’ cried Geraint eagerly. “But the arms, the 
arms, where can I get arms for myself? Then if the spar- 
row-hawk will fight tomorrow in the tourney I may be able 
to bring down his terrible pride a little. 

“I have arms,” said Yniol, “although they are old and 
rusty. Prince Geraint, and you would be welcome to have 
them for the asking. But in this tournament of tomorrow 
no knight is allowed to tilt unless the lady he loves best come 
there too. The forks are fastened into the meadow ground 
and over them is placed a silver wand, above that a golden 
sparrow-hawk, the prize of beauty for the fairest woman 
there. And whoever wins in the tourney presents this to the 
lady-love whom he has brought with him. Since my nephew 
is a man of very large bone and is clever with his lance he 
has always won it for his lady. That is how he has earned 
his title of sparrow-hawk. But you have no lady so you will 
not be able to fight. ” 

Then Geraint leaned forward toward the earl. 

“With your leave, noble Earl Yniol,” he replied, “I will 
do battle for your daughter. For although I have seen all 
the beauties of the day never have I come upon anything so 
wonderfully lovely as she. If it should happen that I prove 
victor, as true as heaven, I will make her my wife!” 

Yniol ’s heart danced in his bosom for joy, and he turned 
about for Enid, but she had fluttered away as soon as her name 


58 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


had been mentioned, so he tenderly grasped the hands of her 
mother in his own and said : 

“Mother, young girls are shy little things and best under- 
stood by their own mothers. Before you go to rest to night, 
find- out what Enid will think about this.’’ 

So the earl’s wife passed out to speak with Enid, and Enid 
became so glad and excited that she could not sleep the entire 
happy night long. But very early the next morning, as soon 
as the pale sky began to reddtn with the sun she arose, then 
called her mother, and hand in hand, tripped over with her to 
the place of the tournament. There they awaited for Yniol 
and Geraint. Geraint came wearing the Earl’s rusty, worn 
old, arms, yet in spite of them looked stately and princely. 

Many other knights in blazing armor gathered there for 
the jousts, with many fine ladies, and by and by the whole 
town full of people flooded in, settling in a circle around the 
lists. Then the two forks were fixed into the earth, above 
them a wand of silver was laid, and over it the golden spar- 
row-hawk. The trumpet was blown and Yniol’s nephew 
rose and spoke: 

“Come forward, my lady, ” he cried to the maiden who had 
come with him. “ Fairest of the fair, take the prize of beauty 
which I have won for you during the past two years. ’ ’ 

“ Stay! ” Prince Geraint cried loudly. “There is a worthier 
beauty here. ” 

The earl’s nephew looked round with surprise and dis- 
dain to see his uncle’s family and the prince. 

“ Do battle for it then, ” he shouted angrily. 

Geraint sprang forward and the tourney was begun. Three 
times the two warriors clashed together. Three times they 
broke their spears. Then both were thrown from their horses. 


TALES FROM TEXXYSON 


59 





60 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


They now drew their swords; and with them lashed at one 
another so frequently and with such dreadfully hard strokes 
that all the crowd wondered. Now and again from the dis- 
tant walls came the sounds of applause, like the clapping of 
phantom hands. The perspiration and the blood flowed 
together down the strong bodies of the combatants. Each 
was as sturdy as the other. 

“Remember the great insult done our queen!’’ Earl Yniol 
cried at last. 

This so inflamed Geraint that he heaved his vast sword- 
blade aloft, cracked through his enemy’s helmet, bit into 
the bone of his head, felled the haughty knight, and set his 
feet upon his breast. 

“ Your name! ” demanded Geraint. 

“ Edryn, the son of Nudd, ” groaned the fallen warrior. 

“Very well, then Edryn, the son of Nudd, ’’returned Geraint, 
“you must do these two things or else you will have to die. 
First, you with your lady and your dwarf must ride to Arthur’s 
court at Caerleon and crave their pardon for the insult you 
did the queen yesterday morning, and you must bide her 
decree in the punishment she awards you. Secondly, you 
must giv.e back the earldom to your uncle the Earl of Yniol. 
You will do these two things or you die. ” 

“I will do them, ’’'cried Edryn. “For never before was I 
ever overcome. But now all of my pride is broken down, 
for Enid has seen me fall. ” 

With that Edryn rose from the ground like a man, took his 
lady and the dwarf on their horses to Arthur’s court. There 
receiving the sweet forgiveness of the queen, he became a 
true knight of the Round Table, and at the last died in battle 
while he fought for his king. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


61 


But Geraint when the tourney was over and he had come 
back to the castle, drew Enid aside to tell her that early the 
next morning he would have to start for Caerleon and that 
she should be ready to ride away with him to be married at the 
court with tremendous pomp. For that would be three days 
after the King’s chase, when the prince had promised Queen 
Guinevere he would be back. But of that he did not speak 
to Enid, who wondered why he was so bent on returning im- 
mediately, and why she could not have time at home to pre- 
pare herself some pretty robes to wear. 

Imagine, she thought, such a grand and frightful thing as a 
court, the queen’s court, with all the graceful ladies staring at 
her in that faded old silk dress! And although she promised 
Geraint that she would go as he wished, when she woke to 
the dread day for making her appearance at court, she still 
yearned that he would only stay yet a little while so that 
she could sew herself some clothes, that she had the flowered 
silk which her mother had given her three years ago for her 
birthday and which Edryn’s men had robbed from her when 
they sacked the house and scattered everything she ever 
owned to all the winds. How she wished that handsome 
Geraint had known her then, those three years ago when she 
wore so many pretty dresses and jewels! 

But while she lay dreamily thinking, softly in trod her 
mother bearing on her arm a gorgeous, delicate robe. 

“Do you recognize it, child?” she cried. 

It was that self-same birthday dress, three years old, but 
as beautiful as new and never worn. 

“ Yesterday after the jousts your father went through all the 
town from house to house and ordered that all sack and plunder 
which the men had taken from us should be brought back, for 


62 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


lie was again to be in his earldom. So last evening while you 
were talking with the prince some one came up from the 

town and placed this in my 
hands. I did not tell you about 
it then for I wished to keep it as 
a sweet surprise for you this 
morning. And it is a sweet sur- 
prise, isn’t it? For although the 
prince yesterday did say that you 
were the fairest of the fair there 
is no handsome girl in the worhl 
but looks handsomer in new 
clothes than in old. And it 
would have been a shame for you 
to go to the court in your poor 
old faded silk which you have 
worn so long and so patiently. 
The great ladies there might say 
that Prince Geraint had plucked 
up some ragged robin from the hedges. ’’ 

So Enid was put into the fine flowered robe. 

Her mother said that after she had gone to the queen’s 
court, she, the poor old mother at home, who was too feeble 
to journey so far with her daughter, would think o.ver and 
over again of her pretty princess at Camelot. And the old 
gray Earl Yniol went in to tell Geraint [of Enid’s fanciful 
apparel. 

But Geraint was not delighted with the magnificence. 

‘^Say to her,” he answered the earl, ‘Ahat by all my love 
for her, although I give her no other reason, I entreat Enid 
to wear that faded old silk dress of hers and no other. ” 



TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


63 


This amazing and hard message from Geraint made poor 
little Enid’s face fall like a meadowfiil of corn blasted by a 
rainstorm. Still she willingly laid aside her gold finery for 
his sake, slipped into the faded silk, and pattered down the 
steps to meet Geraint. He scanned her so eagerly from her tip 
to her toe that both her rosy cheeks burned like flames. Then 
as he noted her mother’s clouded face he said very kindly: 

My new mother don’t be very angr5^,or grieved with your 
new son because of what I have just asked Enid to do. I had 
a very good reason for it and I will explain it all to you. The 
other day when I left the queen at Caerleon to avenge the 
insult done her by Edryn, the son of Nudd, she made me two 
wishes. The one was that I should be successful with my 
quest and the other was that I should wed with my first love. 
Then she promised that whoever my bride should be she her- 
self with her own royal hands would dress her for her wedding 
day, splendidly, like the very sun in the skies. So when I 
found this lovely Enid of yours in her shabby clothes I vowed 
that the queen’s hands only should array her in handsome 
new robqs that befitted her grace and beauty. But never 
mind, dear mother, some day you will come to see Enid and 
then she will wear the golden, flowered birthday dress which 
you gave her three years ago. ” 

Then the earl’s Avife smiled through her tears, Avrapped 
Enid in a mantle, kissed her gentle fareAA^ells, and in a moment 
saAv her riding far, far aAvay beside Geraint. 

The queen Guinevere that day had three times climbed the 
royal toAver at Caerleon to look far into the valley for some 
sign of Geraint, Avho had promised to be back that day, if he 
did not fall in battle, and Avho AAmuld certainly come iioaa^, 
since Edryn had been vanquished and had come to the court. 


G4 


TALES FR0]\1 TENNYSON. 


At last when evening had fallen she spied the princess charger, 
pacing nobly along the road, and Enid’s palfrey at his side. 
Instantly Queen Guinevere sped down from the small window 
in the high turret, tripped out to the gate to greet him and 
embrace the lovely Enid as a long-loved friend. 

The old City of Caerleon was gay for one whole week, over 
the wedding week of Geraint and Enid. The queen herself 
dressed Enid for her marriage like the very sunlight, Dubric, 
the highest saint of the church, married them, and they 
lived for nearly a year at the court with Arthur and sweet 
Guinevere, 

And so the insult done the queen was avenged, and her two 
wishes were fulfilled. For Geraint overcame his enemy and 
wedded with his first-love, dressed for her marriage by the 
queen. • 

GERAINT^S QUEST OF HONOR. 

One morning Prince Geraint went into Arthur’s hall and 
said : 

“0 King, my princedom is in danger. It lies close to the 
territory which is infested with bandits, earls and caitiff 
knights, assassins and all sorts of outlaws. Give me your 
kind good leave and I will go there to defend my lands. ” 

The king said the prince might go, and sent fifty armed 
knights to protect him and pretty Enid as they traveled away 
on their horses across the Severn River into their own country, 
the Land of Devon. 

After Geraint had come into Devon he forgot what he had 
said to the king of ridding his princedom of outlawry, he forgot 
the chase where he had always been so clever in tracking his 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


65 


game, forgot the tournament where he had won victory after 
victor}^, forgot all his former glory and his name, forgot his 
lands and their cares, forgot everything he ever did, and did 
nothing at all but lie about at home and talk with Enid. 



HAIR-DRESSER. 


At last all his people began to gossip about their fine prince 
who once had been illustrious everywhere and now had be- 
come an idle stay-at-home who spent his time in making 
love, to his wife. 

Enid heard of the tattling about Geraint from her hair- 
dresser, and one morning as he lay abed, she went over it all 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


C)6 

to herself, talking aloud. She wished, that he would not 
abandon all his knightly pursuits but would hunt and fight 
again and add to his lustre. She felt very bashful about men- 
tioning the matter to him as she was very shy by nature and 
lived in a time when wives were altogether over-ruled by 
their husbands, yet to say nothing she thought would not be 
showing berself a true wife to Geraint. All this and more 
Enid went over to herself. 

The drowsy prince, half awake, just half heard her and 
quite misunderstood her meaning. When she said that in 
keeping quiet about the gossip she was not a true wife to him 
he supposed she meant that she no longer cared for him, that 
he was not a handsome and strong enough man to suit her 
This grieved him deeply and made him very angry with her, 
for Geraint had really given up all the glory of the king’s 
court just to be alone with Enid, although no one knew it. 
And the thought that now she looked down upon him infuria ted 
all his heart. A word would have made everything right 
but he didn’t say it. 

Springly up quickly from his bed he roused his squire and 
said, “Get ready our horses, my charger and the princess’ 
palfrey. And you, ” turning a frowning face to the princess, 
“put on the worst looking, meanest, poorest dress you have 
and come away -with me. We are going on a quest of honor 
and then you will see what sort of soldier I am. ” 

Enid wondered why her lord was so vexed with her and re- 
plied, “ If I have displeased you surely you will tell me why. ” 

But Geraint would not say; he could not bear to speak of it. 
So Enid hurried after her poor old faded silk gown with the 
summer flowers among its folds, which she had w^orn to ride 
from her old home to Caerleon, and hastily dressed. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


G7 


Do not ride at my side, Geraint said as they both mounted 
their horses to start away. ‘‘Ride ahead of me, a good way 
ahead of me, and no matter what may happen, do not speak 
a word to me, no not a word. ” 

Enid listened, wondering what had come over her lord. 

“ There he cried as they were off,“we will make our way 
^ along with our iron weapons, not wdth gold money.’’ So 
saying, he loosed the great purse which dangled from his 
belt and tossed it back to his squire who stood on the marble 
threshold of the doorway where the golden coins flashed and 
clattered as they scattered every which -way over the floor. 
“Now then, Enid, to the wild woods!” 

At that they made for the swampy, desolated forest lands 
that were famous for their perilous paths and their bandits, 
Enid with a white face going before, Geraint coming gloomily 
nearly a quarter of a mile after. 

The morning was only half begun when the white princess 
became aware that behind a rock hiding in the shadow stood 
three tall knights on horseback, armed from tip to toe, bandit 
outlaws lying in wait to fall upon whoever should pass. She 
heard one saying to his comrades as he pointed toward 
Geraint : 

“ Look here comes some lazy-bones who seems just about as 
bold as a dog who has had the worst of it in a fight. Come, 
we will kill him, and then we will take his horse and armor and 
his lady.” 

Enid thought, “I’ll go back a little way to Geraint and tell 
him about these ruffians, for even if it will madden him I should 
rather have him kill me than to have him fall into their hands.” 

She guided her palfrey backward and bravely met the frown- 
ing face which greeted her, saying timidly : 


68 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


“My lord, there are three bandit knights behind a rock a 
little way beyond us who are boasting that they will slay you 
and steal your horse and armor and make me their captive. ’’ 
“Did I tell you, cried Geraint angrily, “that you should 
warn me of any danger. There was only one thing which I 
told you to do and that was to keep quiet ; and this is the way 
you have heeded me! a pretty way! But win or lose, you shall 
see by these fellows that my vigor is not lost. ’’ 

Then Enid stood back as the three outlaws flashed out of 
their ambush and bore down upon the prince. 

Geraint aimed first for the middle one, driving his long spear 
into the bandit’s breast and out on the other side. The two 
others in the meanwhile had dashed upon him with their 
lances, but they had broken on his magnificent armor like so 
many icicles. He now turned upon them with his broadsword, 
swinging it first to the right and then to the left, first stunning 
them with his blows, then slaying them outright. And when 
all three had fallen he dismounted, and like a hunter skinning 
the wild beasts he has shot, he stripped the three robber 
knights of their gay suits of armor, and leaving the bodies lie, 
bound each man’s sword, spear and coat of arms to his horse, 
tied the three bridle reins of the three empty horses together 
and cried to Enid. 

“ Drive these on before you. 

Enid drove them on across the wastelands, Geraint follow- 
ing after. As she passed into the first shallow shade of the 
forest she described three more horsemen partly hidden in the 
gloom of three sturdy oak-trees. All were armed and one was 
a veritable giant, so tall and bulky, towering above his com- 
panions. 

' “See there, a prize!” bellowed the giant and set Enid’s pulses 


TALES FROM TENN^\S()N. 


GO 



THE THREE OUTLAWS BORE DOWN UPON THE PRINCE. 





70 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


in a quiver. ‘‘Three horses and three suits of armor, and air 
in charge of — whom? A girl! Isn’t that simple? Jaiy on, 
my men!” 

“No,” cried the second, “behind is coming a knight. A 
coward and a fool, for see how he hangs his head. ” 

The giant thundered back gaily. 

“Yes? Only one? Wait here and as he goes by make for 
him. ” 

“ I will go no farther until Geraint comes, ” Enid said to her- 
self stopping her Iiorse. “And then I will tell him about 
these villains. He must be so w^eary with his other fight and 
they will fall upon him unawares. I shall have to disobey him 
again for his own sake. How could I dare to obey him and 
let him be harmed? I must speak; if he kills me for it I shall 
only have lost my own life to save a life that is dearer to me 
than my own. ” 

So she waited until the prince approached when she said 
with a timid firmness, “Have I your leave to speak?” 

“You take it without asking when you spekk, ” he replied, 
and she continued: 

‘ ‘ There are three men lurking in the woods behind some oaks 
and one of them is larger than you, a perfect giant. He told 
them to attack you as you passed by them. ” 

“If there were ahundredmen in the wood and each of them 
a giant and if they all made for me together I vow it would not 
anger me so as to have you disobey me. Stand aside while 
wS'do battle and when we are done stand by the victor. ” 

At this, while Enid fell back breathing short fits of prayer 
but not daring to watch, Geraint proceeded to meet his assail- 
ants. The giant was the first to dasn out for him aiming his 
lance at Geraint’s helmet, but the lance missed and went to one 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


71 


side. Geraint's spear had been a little strained with his 
first encounter, but it struck through the bulky giant’s corse- 
let and pierced his breast, then broke, one-half of it still fast 
in the flesh as the giant knight fell to the earth. The other two 
bandits now felt that their support and hero was gone, and 
when Geraint darted rapidly on them, uttering his terrible 
war cry as if there were a thousand men behind him to come 
to his aid, they flew into the woods. But they were soon 
overtaken and pitilessly put to death. Then Geraint, selecting 
the best lance, the brightest and strongest among their spears 
to replace the one he had broken on the giant, he plucked off 
the gaudy armor from each brigand’s body, laid it on the backs 
of the three horses, tied the bridle reins together and handed 
them to Enid with the words, “ Drive them on before you. ” 

So Enid now followed the wild paths of the gloomy forest 
with two sets of three horses, each horse laden with his master’s 
jingling weapons and coat of mail. Geraint came after. As 
they passed out of the wood into the open sky they came to a 
little town with towers upon a rocky hill, and beneath it a wide 
meadowland with mowers in it, mowing the hay. Down a 
stony pathway from the town skipped a fair-haired lad carrying 
a basket of lunch for the laborers in the field. 

Friend!” cried Geraint, as the lad trotted past him, for he 
saw that Enid looked very white, let my lady have something 
to eat. She is so faint. ’ ’ 

“Willingly,” the youth answered, “and you too, my lord, 
'even although this feed is very coarse and only fit for the 
mowers. ” 

He set down his basket and Enid and Geraint alighted and 
put all the horses to graze, while they sat down on the green 
sward to have some bread and barley. Enid felt too faint at 


72 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


heart, thinking of the prince's strange conduct, to care a great 
deal for food, but Geraint was hungry enough and had all the 
mowers' basket emptied almost before he knew it. 

^‘Boy, " he cried half-ashamed, ‘‘everything is gone, which 
is a disgrace. But take one of my horses and his arms by way 
of payment, choose the very best. " 

The poor lad, who might as well have had a kingdom given 
him, reddened with his extreme surprise and delight. 

“My lord, you are over-paying me fifty times," he cried. 

“You will be all the wealthier then," returned the prince, 
gaily. 

“I'll take it as free gift, then," the lad answered. “The 
food is not worth much. While your lady is resting here I can 
easily go back and fetch more, some more for the earl's mow- 
ers. For all these mowers belong to our great earl, and all 
these fields are his, and I am his, too. I'll tell him what a 
fine man your are, and he will have you to his palace and serve 
you with costly dinners." 

“I wish no better fare than I have had," Geraint said, “I 
never ate better in my life than just now when I left your 
poor mowers dinnerless. And I will go into no earl's palace. 
If he desires to see me, let him come to me. Now you go hire 
us some pleasant room in the town, stall our horses and when 
you return with the food for these men tell us about it." 

“Yes, my kind lord," the glad youth cried, and he held his 
head high and thought he was a gorgeous knight off to the 
wars as he disappeared up the rocky path leading his handsome 
horse. 

The prince turned himself sleepily to watch the lusty 
mowers laboring under the sun as it blazed on their scythes, 
while Enid plucked the long grass by the meadows' edge to 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


73 


weave it rountl and round her wedding ring, until the boy re- 
turned and showed them the room he had got in the town. 

you wish anything, call the woman of the house, 
Prince Geraint said to Enid as the door closed behind them. 
^‘Do not speak to me. 

‘‘ Yes, my lord,’’ returned Enid, still marvelling at his cold 
ways. 

Silently they sat down, she at one end, he at the other, as 
quiet as pictures. But suddenly a mass of voices sounded up 
the street, and heel after heel echoing upon the pavement. 
In a twinkling the door to their room was pushed back to the 
wall while a mob of boisterous young gentlemen tumbled in 
led by the Earl of Limours, the wild lord of the town, and 
Enid’s old suitor whom her father had rejected long ago, a 
man as beautiful as a woman and very graceful. He seized 
the prince’s hand warmly, welcomed him to the town and 
stealthily, out of the corner of his eye, caught a glimpse of 
unhappy Enid nestled all alone at the farther end of the room. 

The prince immediately sent for every sort of delicious 
things to eat and drink from the town, told the earl, to bid 
all his friends for a feast and soon was gaily making merry 
with the men, drinking, laughing, joking. 

“ May I have your leave, my lord, ” cried Earl Limours, “ to 
cross the room and speak a word with your lady who seems 
so lonely?” 

“My free leave,” cried the merry Prince Geraint, who did 
not know the earl, “ Get her to speak with you; she has nothing 
to say to me. ” 

As Limours stepped to Enid’s side he lifted his eyes ador- 
ingly, bowed at her side and said in a whisper: 

“Enid, you pilot star of my life, I see that Geraint is very 


74 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


unkind to you and loves you no longer. AVhat a laughing 
stock he is niaking of you with that wretched old dress' you 
have on! But I, I love you still as always. Just say the word 
and I will have him put into the keep and you will come with 
me. I Avill be kind to you forever. ’’ 

The- tears fluttered into the earhs eyes as he spoke . 

^‘Earl,” replied Enid, ‘Of you love me as used to do in 
the 3^ears long ago, and are not joking now, come in the morn- 
ing and take me by force from the prince. But leave me to- 
night. I am wearied to death. ’’ 

So the earl made a low bow, brandishing his plumes until 
they brushed his very insteps, while the stout prince bade 

him a loud good night, 
and he moved away talk- 
ing to his men. 

But as soon as he was 
gone Enid began to plan 
how she could escape with 
Geraint before Earl L i m- 
ours should come after her 
in the morning. She was 
too afraid of Geraint to 
speak with him about it, 
but when he had fallen 
THE EARL MADE A LOW BOW. asleop slio sJcpped lightly 

about the room and 
gathered the pieces of his armor together in one place 
ready for an early departure on the morrow.. Then she 
dropped off into slumber. But suddenly she heard a loud 
sound, the earl with his wild following blowing his trumpet 
to call her to come out, she thought. But it was only the 



TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


75 


great red cock in the yard below crowing at the daylight 
which had begun to glimmer now across the heap of 
GerainEs armor. She rose immediately in her fright to- see 
that all was well, went over to examine the weapons and un- 
wittingly let the casque fall jangling to the floor. This woke 
Geraint, who started up and stared at her. 

My lord, ” began Enid, and then she told him all tl^at Earl 
Limours had said to her and how she had put him off by telling 
him to come this morning. 

‘'Call the woman of the house and tell her to bring tlie 
charger and the palfrey,” Geriant cried angrily. “Your 
sweet face makes fools of good fellows. ” Geraint loved Enid 
Mill and he was in as great perplexity as she, for after mis- 
understanding what she had said he no more knew whether 
she cared for him truly than she knew what was troubling 
him and making him act in this unaccountable manner. 

Enid slipped through the sleeping household like a ghost 
to deliver the prince’s message to the landlord, hurried back 
to help Geraint with his armor and came down with him to 
spring upon her palfrey. 

“What do I owe you, friends?” the i)rince asked his host, 
but before the man could reply he added “take those five 
horses and their burdens of arms. ” 

“My lord, I have scarcely spent the price of one of them on 
you!” cried the landlord astonished. 

“You'll have all the more riches then,” the prince laughed, 
then turning to Enid,“ today I charge you more particularly 
than ever before that whatever you may see, hear, fancy or 
imagine, do not speak to me, but obey. ” 

“Yes, my lord,^’ answered Enid, “I know your wish and 
should like to obey, but when I go riding ahead, I hear all the 


76 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


violent threats you do not hear and see the danger you cannot 
see, and then not to give you warning seems hard, almost 
beyond me. Yet, I wish to obey you.’ ' 

“Do so, then,” said he. “Do not be too wise, seeing that 
you are married, not to a clown but a strong man with arms to 
guard his own head and yours, too.’ ’ 

The broad beaten path which they now took passed through 
toward the wasted lands bordering on the castle of Earl Doorm, 
the Bull, as his people called him, because of his ferocity. 

It was still early, morning when Enid caught the sound of 
quantities of hoofs galloping up the road. Turning round she 
saw cloudsful of dust and the points of lances sparkling in it. 
Then, not to disobey the prince, yet to give him warning, she 
held up her finger and pointed toward the dust. Geraint was 
pleased at her cunning, and immediately stopped his horse. 
The moment after, the Earl of Limours dashed in upon^iim on 
a charger as black and as stormy as a thunder-cloud. 

Geraint closed with the earl, bore down on him with his spear, 
and in a minute brought him stunned or dead to the ground. 
Then he turned to the next-comer after Limours, overthrew 
him and blindly rushed back upon all the men behind. But 
they were so startled at the flash and movement of the prince 
that they scrambled away in a panic, leaving their leader lying 
on the public highway. The horses also of the fallen w^arriors 
whisked off from their wounded masters and wildly flew away 
to mix with the vanishing mob. 

“Horse and man, all of one mind,” remarked Geraint, 
smiling, “not a hoof of them left. What do you say, Enid, 
shall we strip the earl and pay for a dinner or shall we fast? 
F ast ? Then go on and let us pray heaven to send us some Earl 
of Doorm’s men so that we can earn ourselves someth ing to eat . ” 


TALES FllOM TENNYSON. 


77 


Enid sadly eyed her bridle-reins and led the way, Geraint 
coming after, scarcely knowing that he had been pricked by 
Limours in his side, and that he was bleeding secretly beneath 
his armor. But at last his head and helmet began to wag un- 



ENID SAT DOWN DESOLATELY AND BEGAN TO CRY. 


steadily, and at a sudden swerving of the road he was tossed 
from his horse upon a bank of grass. Enid heard the clashing 
of the fall, and too terrified to cry out, came back ail pale. Then 
she dismounted, loosed the fastenings of his armor and bound 
up his wounds with her veil. Then she sat down desolately 
and began to cry, wondering what ever she should do. 

Many men passed by but no one took any notice of her. For 


78 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


in that lawless, turbulent earldom no one minded a woman 
weeping for a murdered lover than they now mind a summer 
shower. One man scurrying as fast as ever he could travel 
toward the bandit earFs castle, drove the sand sweeping into 
her poor eyes, and another coming in the opposite direction 
from out the earhs castle park in seeming hot haste, turned 
all the long dusty road into a column of smoke behind him, 
and frightened her little palfrey so that it scoured off into 
the coppices and was lost. But the prince’s charger stood 
beside them and grieved over the mishap like a man. 

At noon a huge warrior with a big face and russet beard and 
eyes rolling about in search of prey, came riding hard by with- 
a hundred spearmen at his back all bound for some foray. It 
was the frightful Earl Doorm. 

“What, is he dead?” cried the earl loudly to Enid, as he 
spied her on the wayside. 

“No, no, not dead,” she quickly answered. ‘‘Would 
some of your kind people take him up and bear him off some- 
where out of this cruel sun? I am very sure, quite sure that 
he is not dead.” 

“Well, if he isn’t dead, why should you cry for him so.? 
Dead or not dead, you just spoil your pretty face with idiotic 
tears. They will not help him. But since it is a pretty face, 
come fellows, some of you, and take him to our hall. If he lives 
he will.be one of our band, and if not, why there is earth enough 
to bury him in. See that you take his charger, too, a noble 
one.’ ’ 

And so saying, the rude earl passed on, while two brawny 
horsemen came forward growling to think they might lose their 
chance of booty from the morning’s raid all for this dead man. 
They raised the prince upon a litter, laying him in the hollow 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


79 


of his shield, and brought him into the barren hall of Doorin, 
while Enid and the gentle charger followed after. They tossed 
him and his litter down on an oaken settle in the hall, and then 
shot away for the woods.- 

Enid sat through long hours all alone with Geraint besides 
the oaken settle, propping his head and chafing his hands, but 
in the late afternoon she saw the huge Earl Doorm return- 
ing with his lusty spearmen and their plunder. Each hurled 
down a heap of spoils on the floor, threw aside his lance and 
doffed his helmet, while a tribe of brightly gowned gentle- 
women fluttered into the hall and began to talk with them. 
Earl Doorm struck his knife against the table and bellowed for 
meat, and wine. In a moment the place fairly steamed and 
smoked wfith whole roast hogs and oxen, and everybody sat 
down in a hodge-podge and ate like cattle feeding in their stalls, 
while Enid shrank far back startled, into her nook. 

But suddenly, when Earl Doorm had eaten all he would, and 
all he could for the moment, he revolved his eyes about the 
bare hall and caught a glimpse of the fair little lady drooping 
in her niche. Then he recollected how she had crouched weep- 
ing by the roadside for her fallen lord that morning. A wild 
pity filled his gruff heart. 

“Eat, eat!” he shouted. “I never before saw anything so 
pale. Be yourself. Isn’t your lord lucky, for were I dead who 
is there in all the world who would mourn for me? Sweet lady, 
never have I ever seen a lily like you. If there were a bit of 
color living in your cheeks there is not one among my gentle- 
women here who would be fit to wear your slippers for gloves. 
But listen to me and you will share my earldom with me, girl, 
and we will live like two birds in a nesfiand I will bring you all 
sorts of finery from every part of the world to make you happy. 


80 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


As the earl spoke his two cheeks bulged with the two tre- 
mendous morsels of meat which he had tucked into his mouth. 

Enid was more alarmed than ever. 

“How can I be happy over anything,” replied she, “until 
my lord is well again?” 

The earl laughed, then plucked her up out of the corner, car- 
ried her over to the table, thrust a dish of food before her and 
held a horn of wine to her lips. 

“ By all heaven,” cried Enid, “ I will not drink until my lord 
gets up and drinks and eats with me. And if he will not rise 
again I will not drink any wine until I die. ’ ’ 

At this the earl turned perfectly red and paced up and down 
the hall, gnawing first his upper and then his lower lip. 

“ Girl,” shouted he, “ why wail over a man vho shames your 
beauty so, by dressing it in that rag? Put off these beggar- 
woman’s weeds and robe yourself in this which my gentle- 
woman has brought you. ’ ^ 

It was a gorgeous, wonderful dress, colored in the tints of a 
shallow sea with the blue playing into the green, and gemmed 
with precious stones all down the front of it as thick as dewdrops 
on the grass. But Enid was harder to move than any cold 
tyrant on his throne, and said : 

“Earl, in this poorgownmy dear lord found me first and loved 
me while I was living with my father; in this poor gown I rode 
with him to court and was presented to the queen; in this poor 
gown he bade me ride as we cam€ out on this fatal quest of 
honor, and in this poor gown I am going to stay until he gets up 
again, a live, strong man, and tells me to put it away. I have 
griefs enough, pray be gentle with me, let me be. OGod! I 
beg of your gentleness, since he is as he is, to let me be.’^ 

Then the brutal earl strode up and down the hall and cried out: 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


81 


‘‘It is of no more use to be gentle with you than to be rough. 
So take my salute/ ^ and with that he slapped her lightly on her 
white cheek. 

Enid shrieked. Instantly the fallen Geraint was up on his 
feet with the sword that had laid beside him in the hollow of 
the shield, making a single bound for the earl, and with oAe 
sweep of it sheared through the swarthy neck. The rolling 



THE RUSSET-BEARDED HEAD TUMBLED OVER THE FLOOR 
LIKE A BALL. 

eyes turned glassy, the russet-bearded head tumbled over the 
floor like a ball, and all the bandit knights and the gentle- 
worpen in the hall flitted, scampering pell-mell away, yelling 
as if they had seen a ghoul. Enid and Geraint were left alone. 

Now Geraint had come out of his swoon before the earl had 
returned, and he had lain perfectly silent and immovable be- 
cause he wished to test Enid and see what she would do when 


82 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


she thought he was sleeping or fainted away, or perhaps dead. 
So he had listened to all that had taken place and had heard 
everything that Earl Do orin had said to her and all that Enid 
had replied, so now he knew that she loved him as ever and that 
she stood steadfast by him. All his heart filled with pity and 
remorse that he had brought her away on this hard, hard quest, 
and had made her suffer so much and had been so rough and 
cold. 

‘‘Enid,” said the prince tenderly, very tenderly. “I have 
used you worse than that big dead brute of a man used you. 
I have done you more wrong than he. I misunderstood you. 
Now, now you are three times mine.^ ’ 

Geraint’s kindness burst upon Enid so abruptly and was so 
unforeseen that she could not speak a word only this : 

‘ ‘ Fly, Geraint, they will kill you, they will come back. Fly. 
Your horse is outside, my poor little thing is lost.’ ’ 

“You shall ride behind me, then, Enid.’ ’ 

So they slipped quickly outside, found the stately charger 
and mounted him, first Geraint, then Enid, climbing up the 
prince’s feet, and throwing her arms about him to hold herself 
firm as they bounded off. 

But as the horse dashed outside of the earl’s gateway there 
before them in the highroad stood a knight of Arthur’s court 
holding his lance as if ready to spring upon Geraint. 

“Stranger!” shrieked Enid, thinking of the prince’s wound 
and loss of blood, “do not kill a dead man!’ ’ 

“The voice of Enid!’ ’ cried the stranger knight. 

Then Enid saw that he was Edryn, the son of Nudd,,and 
feeling the more terrified as she rem.embered the jousts,, cried 
out : 

“0, cousin, this is the man who spared your life!’ ’ 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


83 


Edryn stepped forward. “ My lord Geraint/ ’ he said, ‘‘ I took 
you for some bandit knight of Doorm’s. Do not fear, Enid, 
that I will attack the prince. I love him. When he over- 



BEFORE THEM IN THE HIGHROAD STOOD A 
KNIGHT OF ARTHUR’S COURT. 


threw me at the lists he threw me higher. For now I have 
been made a Knight of the Round Table and am altogether 
changed. But since I used to know Earl Doorm in the old 
days when I was lawless and half a bandit myself, I have come 
as the mouthpiece of our king to tell Doorm to disband all his 
men and become subject to Arthur, who is now on his way 
hither.^’ 

‘‘Doorm is now before the King of Kings, ’’ Geraint replied 
“And his men are already scattered,” and the prince pointed 


84 


TALES FROM TENNYSON, 


to groups in the thickets or still running off in their panic. Then 
back to the people all aghast whom they could see huddling, he 
related fully to Edryn how he had slain the huge earl in his own 
hall. 



TO THE ROYAL CAMP WHERE ARTHUR CAME OUT 
TO GREET THEM. 


‘‘ Come with me to the king,’ ’ astonished Edryn said. 

So they all traveled off to the royal camp where Arthur him- 
self came out to greet them, lifted Enid from her saddle, kissed 
her and showed her a tent where his own physician came in to 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


85 


attend to GerainEs wound. When that was healed he ro(;le 
away with them to Caerleon for a visit with Queen Guinevere, 
who dressed Enid again in magnificent clothes. Then fifty 
armed knights escorted Enid and the prince as far as the banks 
of the Severn River, where they crossed over into the land of 
Devon. And all their people welcomed them back. 

Geraint after that never forgot his princedom or the tourna- 
ment, but was known through all the country round as the 
cleverest and bravest warrior, while his princess was called 
Enid the Good. 

MERLIN AND VIVIEN. 

Vivien was a very clever, wily and wicked woman, who 
wanted to become a greater magician than even the great Merlin, 
who was the most famous man of all his times, who understood 
all the arts, who had built the king’s harbors, ships and halls, 
who was a fine poet and who could read the future In the stars 
in the skies. 

He had once told Vivien of a charm that he could work to 
make people invisible. AVhenever he worked it upon anyone 
that person would seem to be imprisoned within the four walls 
of a tower and could not get out. The person would seem dead, 
lost to every one, and could be seen only by the person who 
worked the charm. Vivien yearned to know what the charm 
was, for she wanted to cast its spell on Merlin so that no one 
would know w^here he was and she could become a great en- 
chantress in the realm, as she foolishly thought. And she 
planned very cleverly so as to find out the wise old man’s 
secret. 


86 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


She wanted him to think that she loved him dearly. At first 
she played about him with lively, pretty talk, vivid smiles, and 
he watched and laughed at her as 
if she were a playful kitten. Then 
as she saw that he half disdained, 
her she began to put on very 
grave and serious fits, turned red 
and pale when he came near her, 
or sighed or gazed at him, so 
silently and with such sweet de- 
votion that he half believed that 
she really loved him truly. 

But after a while a great mel- 
ancholy fell over Merlin, he felt 
so terribly sad that he passed 
away out of the kings’ court and 
went down to the beach. There 
he found a little boat and stepped 
into it. Vivien had followed him 
without his knowing it. She sat down in the boat and while 
he took the sail she seized the helm of the boat. They were 
driven across the sea with a strong wind and came to the 
shores of Brittany. Here Merlin got out and Vivien followed 
him all the way into the wild woods of Broceliande. Every 
step of the way Merlin was perfectly quiet. 

They sat down together, she lay beside him and kissed his. 
feet as if in the deepest reverence and love. A twist of gold was 
wound round her hair, a priceless robe of satiny samite clung 
about her beautiful limbs. As she kissed his feet she cried : 

“Trample me down, dear feet which I have followed all 



HE LAUGHED AT HER. 



TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


87 


through the world and I will worship you. Tread me down 
and I will kiss you for it.’ ’ 

But Merlin still said not a word. 



MERLIN FELT SO TERRIBLY SAD. 

Merlin do you love me?’ ’ at last cried Vivien, with her face 
sadly appealing to him. And again, 0, Merlin, do you love 
me Great Master, do you love me?” she cried for the third 
time. 

And then when he was as quiet as ever she writhed up toward 
him, slid upon his knee, twined her feet about his ankles, 
curved her arms about his neck and used one of her hands as a 


88 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


white comb to run through his long ashy beard which she 
drew all across her neck down to her knees. 

“See! Fm clothing myself with wisdom/’ she cried. “Fma 
golden summer butterfly that’s been caught in a great old 
tyrant spider’s web that’s going to eat me up in this big wild 
wood without a word to me.’ ’ 

“What do you mean, Vivien, with these pretty tricks of 
yours?’ ’ cried Merlin at last. “ What do you want me to give 
you?” 

“ What!’ ’ said Vivien, smiling saucily, “have you found your 
tongue at last? Now yesterday you didn’t open your lips once 
except to drink. And then I, with my own lady hands, made 
a pretty cup and offered you your water kneeling before you 
and you drank it, but gave me not a word of thanks. And' 
when we stopped at the other spring when you lay with your 
feet all golden with blossoms from the meadows we passed 
through you know that I bathed your feet before I bathed my 
own. But yet no thanks from you. And all through this wild 
wood, all through this morning when I fondled you, still not a 
word of thanks.’ ’ 

Then Merlin locked her hand in his and said, “ Vivien, have 
you never seen a wave as it was coming up the beach ready to 
break? Well, I’ve been seeing a wave that was ready to break 
on me. It seemed to me that some dark, tremendous wave 
was going to come and sweep me away from my hold on the 
world, away from my fame and my usefulness and my great 
name. That’s why I came away from Arthur’s court to make 
me forget it and feel better. And when I saw you coming after 
me it seemed to me that you were that wave that was going to 
roll all over me. But pardon me, now, child, your pretty ways 
have brightened everything again, and now tell me what you 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


89 


would like to have from me. For I owe you something three 
times over, once for neglecting you, twice for the thanks for 
your goodness to me, and lastly for those dainty gambols of 
yours. So tell me now, what will you have V ^ 

Vivien smiled mournfully as she answered : 

IVe always been afraid that you were not really mine, that 
you didnT love me truly, that you didnT quite trust me, and 
now you yourself have owned it. DonT you see, dear love, 
how this strange mood of yours must make me feel it more than 
ever? must make me yearn still more to prove that you are mine, 
must make me wish still more to know that great charm of 
waving hands and woven footsteps that you told me about, 
just as a proof that you trust me? If you told that to me I 
should know that you are mine, and I should have the great 
proof of your love, because I think that however wise you may 
be you do not know me yet.^ ’ 

‘‘ I never was less wise, you inquisitive Vivien,^ ^ said Merlin, 
than when I told you about that charm. Why wonT you ask 
me for another boon?' ' 

Then Vivien, as if she were the tenderest hearted little maid 
that ever lived, burst into tears and said : 

^^No, master, don't be angry at your little girl. Caress me, 
let me feel myself forgiven, for I have not the heart to ask for 
another boon. I don't suppose that you know the old rhyme, 
^Trust not at all or all in all?' ' ' 

Then Merlin looked at her and half believed what she said. 
Her voice was so tender, her face was so fair, her eyes were so 
sweetly gleaming behind her tears. 

^^He locked her hand in his again and said, ‘‘If you should 
know this charm you might sometimes in a wild moment of 
anger or a mood of overstrained affection when you wanted me 


90 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


all to yourself or when you were jealous in a sudden fit, you 
might work it on me.’ ^ 

^‘Good!” cried Vivien, as if she were angry, ‘‘I am not 
trusted. Well, hide it away, hide it, and I shall find it out, and 
when I’ve found it beware, look out for Vivien ! When you 
use me so it’s a wonder that I can love you at all, and as for 
jealously, it seems to me this wonderful charm was invented 
just to make me jealous. I suppose you have a lot of pretty 
girls whom you have caged here and there all over the world 
with it.” 

Then the great master laughed merrily. 

' ‘ Long, long years ago,’ ’ he said, ^ ^ there lived a King in the 
farthest East of the East. A tawny pirate who had plun- 
dered twenty islands or more anchored his boat in the King’s 
port, and in the boat was a woman. For, as he had passed one 
of the islands the pirates had seen two cities full of men in boats 
fighting for a woman on the sea; he had pushed up his black 
boat in among the rest, lightly scattered every one of them and 
brought her off with half his people killed with arrows. She 
was a maiden so smooth, so white, so wonderful that a light 
seemed to come from her as she walked. When the pirate came 
upon the shore of the Eastern King’s island the King asked him 
for the woman, but he would not give her up. So the King 
imprisoned the pirate and made the woman his queen. 

‘‘All the people adored her, the Kind’s council men and all 
his soldiers, the beasts themselves. The camels knelt down 
before her unbidden, and the black slaves of the mountains 
rang her golden ankle bells just to see her smile. So little 
wonder that the King grew very jealous. He had his horns 
blown through all the hundred under-kindgdoms which he 
ruled, telling the people that he wanted a wizard who would 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


91 


teach him some charm to work upon the queen and make her 
all his own. To the wizard who could do this he promised a 
league of mountain land full of golden mines, a province with 
a hundred miles of coast, a palace and a princess. But all the 
wizards who failed should be killed and their heads would be 
hung on the city gates until they mouldered away. 

So there were many, many wizards all through the hun- 
dred kingdoms who tried to work the charm, but failed ; many 
wizard heads bleached on the walls, and for weeks a troupe 
of carrion crows hung like a cloud above the towers of the city 
gateways. But at last the king’s men found a little glassy 
headed, hairless man who lived alone in a great wilderness and 
ate nothing but grass. He read only one book, and by always 
reading had got grated down, filed away and lean, with mon- 
strous eyes and his skin clinging to his bones. But since he 
never tasted wine or flesh — the wall that separates people from 
spirits became crystal to him. He could see through it, per- 
ceive the spirits as they walked and hear them talking; so 
he learned their secrets. Often he drew a cloud of rain 
across a sunny sky, or when there was a wild storm and 
the pine woods roared he made everything calm again. 

‘‘ He was the man that was wanted. They dragged him to 
the king’s court by force, he didn’t want to go. There he 
taught the king how to charm the queen so that no one could 
sec her^again, and she could see no one except the king as he 
passed about the palace. She lay as if quite dead and lost to 
life. ButNvhen the king offered the magician his league of 
golden mines, the province with a hundred miles of sea coast, 
the palace and the princess, the old man turned away, went 
back to his wilderness and lived on grass and vanished away. 
But his book came down to me.” 


92 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


“ You have the book!’’ cried Vivian smiling saucily. ‘^The 
charm is written in it. Good, take my advice and let me know 
the secret at once, for if you should hide it away like a puzzle in 
a chest, if you should put chest upon chest, and lock and pad- 
lock each chest thirty times and bury them all away under 
some vast mound like the heaps of soldiers on the battle-field, 
still I should hit upon some way of digging it out, of picking it, 
of opening it and reading the charm. And then if I tried it on 
you who would blame me? ” 

“You read the book, my pretty Vivien?” cried Merlin. 
“Well, it’s only twenty pages long, but such pages! Every 
page has a square of text that looks like a blot, the letters no 
longer than fleas’ legs written in a language that has long gone 
by, and all the borders and margins scribbled, crossed and 
crammed with notes. You read that book! No one, not 
even I can read the text, and no one besides me can make out 
the notes on the margins. I found the charm in the margin. 
Oh, it is simple enough. Any child might work it and then 
not be able to undo it. Don’t ask me again for it, because 
even although you would love me too much to try it on me, 
still you might try it on some of the knights of the Round 
Table.” 

“ 0, you are crueller than any man ever told of in a story, or 
sung about in song!” cried Vivien. She clapped her hands 
together and wailed out a shriek. “I’m stabbed to the heart! I 
only wished that prove to you that were wholly mine, that you 
loved me and now I’m killed with a word. There’s nothing 
left for me to do except crawl into some hole or cave, and if the 
wolves won’t tear me to pieces, just to weep my life away, 
killed with unutterable unkindness ! ” 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


93 


She paused, turned away, hung her head while the hair 
uncoiled itself. Then she wept afresh. 

The dark wood grew darker with a storm coming over the sky. 

Merlin sat thinking quietly and half believed that she was true. 

“ Come out of the storm/ ^ he called over to her,^^ come here 
into the hollow old oak tree.” 

Then since she didn’t answer, he tried three times to calm 
her but quite in vain. At last, however, she let herself be 
conquered, came back to her old perch, and nestled there, 
half falling from his knees. Gentle Merlin saw the slow tears 
still standing in her eyes and threw his arms kindly about her. 
But Vivien unlinked herself at once, rose with her arms crossed 
upon her bosom and fled away. 

“ No more love between us two,” she cried, ‘^for you do not 
trust me. Oh, it would have been better if I had died three 
times over than to have asked you once! Farewell, think 
gently of me and I will go. But before I leave you let me 
swear once more that if I Ve been planning against you in all 
this, may the dark heavens send one great flash from out the 
sky to burn me to a cinder! ” 

Just as she ended a bolt of lightning darted across the sky, 
and sliced the giant oak tree into a thousand splinters and 
spikes. 

‘‘ Oh, Merlin, save me! save me!” cried Vivien, terrified lest 
the heavens had heard her oath and were going to kill her. 
And she flew back to his arms. She called him her dear 
protector, her lord and liege, her seer, her bard, her silver 
star of evening, her God, her Merlin, the one passionate love 
of her life, and hugged him close. 

All the time overhead the tempest bellowed, the branches 
snapped above them in the rushing rain. Her glittering eyes 


94 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


and neck seemed to come and go before Merlin’s eyes with the 
lightning. At last the storm had spent its passion, the wood- 



IN THE HOLLOW OF THE OLD OAK TREE 
LEFT HIM LYING DEAD. 


land was all in peace again, and Merlin, overtalked and over- 
worn had told all of the charm and had fallen asleep. 

Then in a moment Vivien worked the charm with woven 
footsteps and waving arms, and in the hollow of the old oak 
tree left him lying dead to all life, use and fame and name. 

“ I have made his glory mine! 0 fool!” she shrieked, and 
she sprang down through the great forest, the thicket closed 
about her behind her and all the woods echoed, ‘ ‘ Fool ! ’ ’ 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


95 


BALINAND BALAN. 

King Pellam owed Arthur some tribute money so Arthur 
told three of his knights to go see about it and collect it for 
him. 

“ Very well/ ^ said one of the knights, “but listen, on the wa}'' 
to King Pellam’s country, near Camelot, there are two strange 
knights sitting beside a fountain. They challenge and over- 
throw every knight that passes. Shall I stop to fight them as 
we go by and send them back to you?’ ’ 

Arthur laughed, “No, don’t stop for anything; let] them 
wait until they can find some one stronger themselves.’ ’ 

With that the three men left. But after they had gone 
Arthur, who loved a good fight himself, started away early one 
morning for the fountain side of Camelot. On its right hand 
he saw the knight Balin sitting under an alder tree, with his 
horse beside him, and on the left hand under a poplar tree 
with his horse at his side sat the knight Balan. 

“ Fair sirs,’ ’ cried Arthur, “ why are you sitting here?’ ’ 

“For the sake of glory,” they answered. “We’re stronger 
than all Arthur’s court. We’ve proved that because we easily 
overthrow every knight that comes by here.’ ’ 

“Well, Fm of Arthur’s court, too,” replied the king, “al- 
though I’ve never done so much in jousts as in real wars. But 
see whether you can overthrow me so easily too.’ ’ 

So the two brothers came out boldly and fought with Arthur, 
but he struck them both lightly down, then softly came , away 
and nobody knew anything about it. 

But that evening while Balin and Balan sat very meekly 
by the bubbling water a spangled messenger came riding by 
and cried out to them : “Sirs, you are sent for by the King.’ ’ 


96 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


So they followed the man back to the court ''Tell me your 
names, " demanded Arthur, "and why do you sit there by the 
fountain 



TWO STRANGE KNIGHTS. 


"My name is Balin, answered one of the men, "and my 
l)rother^s name is Balan. Three years ago I struck down one 
of your slaves whom I heard had spoken ill of me, and you 
sent me away for a three years^ exile. Then I thought that 
if we would sit by the well and would overcome every knight 
who passed by you would be a more willing to take me back. 
But today some man of yours came along and conquered us 
both . What do you wish with me ? 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


97 


Be wiser for falling/’ Arthur said. “Your chair is in the 
hall vacant. Take it again and be my knight once more.’ ’ 

So Balin went back into the old hall of the Knights of the 
Round Table, and they all clashed their cups together drinking 
his welcome, and sang until all of Arthur’s banners of war 
hanging overhead began to stir as they always did on the 
battlefield. 

IMeanwhile the men who had gone to collect the taxes from 
King Pellam returned. 

“Sir King,” they cried to Arthur, “We scarcely could see 
Pellam for the gloom in his hall. That man who used to be 
one of your roughest and most riotous enemies is now living like 
a monk in his castle and has all sorts of holy things about him, 
and says he has given up all matters of the world. He wouldn’t 
even talk about the tribute money and told us that his heir 
Sir Garlon, attended to his business for him, so we went to 
Garlon and after a struggle we got it . Then we came away, but 
as we passed through the deep woods we found one of your 
knights lying dead, killed by a spear. After we had buried 
him, we talked with an old woodman who told us that there’s a 
demon of the woods who had probably slain the knight. This 
demon, he said, was once a man who lived all alone and learned 
black magic. He hated people so much that when he died he 
became a fiend. The woodman showed us the cave where he 
has seen the demon go in and out and where he lives. We 
saw the print of a horse’s hoof, but no more.’ ’ 

“Foully and villainously slain!” cried Arthur thinking of 
his poor killed knight in the woods. “Who will go hunt this 
demon of the woods for me?” 

“I!” exclaimed Balan, ready to dart instantly away, but 
first he embraced Balin, saying, “Good brother, hear; don’t 


98 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


let your angry passions conquer you, fight them away. Re- 
member how these knights of the Round Table welcomed you 
back. Be a loving brother with them and don’t imagine that 
there is hatred among them here any more than there is in 
heaven itself.” 

When bad Balan left, Balin set himself to learn how to curb 
his wildness and become a courteous and manly knight. He 
always hovered about Lancelot, the pattern knight 
of all the court, to see how he did, and when he noticed 
Lancelot’s sweet smiles and his little pleasant words that 
gladdened every knight or churl or child that he passed, Balin 
sighed like some lame boy who longed to scale a mountain top 
and could scarcely limp up one hundred feet from the base. 

It’s Lancelot’s worship of the queen that helps to make him 
gentle,” said he to himself. ^‘If I want to be gentle I must 
serve and worship lovely Queen Guinevere too. Suppose I ask 
the King to let me have some token of hers on my shield instead 
of these pictures of wild beasts with big teeth and grins. Then 
whenever I see it I’ll forget my wild heats and violences. ” 

^‘What would you like to bear on your shield?” asked the 
king when Balin spoke to him a^bout his wish. 

The queen’s own crown-royal, ” replied Balin. 

Then the queen smiled and turned to Arthur. “The crown 
is only the shadow of the king,” she said, “and this crown 
is the shadow of that shadow. But let him have it if it will 
help him out of his violences. ” 

“ It’s no shadow to me, my queen, “cried Balan, “no shadow 
to me, king. It’s a light for me. ” 

So Balin was given the crown to bear on his shield and when- 
ever he looked at it, it seemed to make him feel gentle and 
patient. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


99 


But one morning as he lieard Lancelot and the queen talking 
together on the white walk of lilies that led to Queen Guinevere’s 
bower, all his old passions seemed to come back and filled him 



HIS SHIELD. 

and he darted madly away on his horse, not stopping until 
he had passed the fount where he had sat with his brother 
Balan and had dived into the skyless woods beyond. There 
the gray-headed woodman was hewing away wearily at a 
branch of a tree. 


LofC. 


100 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Give me your axe, Churl, ’’ cried Balin, and with one sharp 
cut he struck it down. 

‘^Lord!” cried the woodman, “you could kill the devil of 
this woods if any one can. J ust yesterday I saw a flash of him. 
Some people say that our Sir Garlon has learned black magic 
too and can ride armed unseen Just look into the demon 
cave. ’’ 

But Balin said the woodman was foolish, and rode off though 
the glades with a drooping head. He did not notice that on 
his right a great cavern chasm yawned out of the darkness. 
Once he heard the mosses beneath him thud and tremble and 
then the shadow of a spear shot from behind him and ran along 
the ground. The light of somebody’s armor flashed by him 
and vanished into the woods. 

Balin dashed after this but he was so blinded by his rage that 
he stumbled against a tree, breaking his lance and falling from 
. his horse. He sprang to his feet and darted off again not know- 
ing where he was going until the massy battlements of King 
Pellam’s castle appeared. 

“ Why do you wear the crown royal on your shield? ” Pellam’s 
men asked him as soon as they saw him. 

“ The fairest and best of ladies living gave it' to me, ” Balin 
replied, as he stalled his horse and strode across the court to the 
banquet hall. 

“ Why do you wear the royal crown? ” Sir Garlon asked him 
as they sat at table. 

“The queen whom Lancelot and we all worship as the fairest, 
best and purest gave it to me to wear, ’ ’ said Balin. 

But Sir Galon only hissed at him and made fun of what he 
said, and Balin reached for a wonderful goblet embossed with 
a sacred picture to hurl it at Garlon, but the thought of the 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


101 


gentle queen about whom he was talking soothed his temper. 
The next morning, however, in the court Sir Garlon mocked 
him again and Balin’s face grew black with anger. He tore 
out his sword from its shield and crying out fiercely, “Ha! 
I ’ll make a ghost of you! ’’ struck Garlon hard on the helmet. 

The blade flew and splintered into six parts which clinked 
upon the stones below while Garlon reeled slowly backward 
and fell. Balin dragged him by the banneret of his helmet 
and struck again, but in a minute twenty warriors with 
pointed lances were making for him from the castle. Balin 
dashed his fist against the foremost face then dipped through 
a low doorway out along a glimmering gallery until he saw 
the open portals of King Pellam’s chapel. He slipped inside 
this and crept behind the door while the others howled passed 
outside. 

Before the golden altar he noticed lying the brightest 
lance he had ever seen with its point painted red with blood. 
Seizing it he pushed it out through an open casement, leaned 
on it and leaped in a half-circle to the ground outside. Run- 
ning along a path he found his horse, mounted him and 
scudded away. An arrow whizzed to his right, another to 
his left and a third over his head while he heard Pellam crying 
out feebly, “Catch him, catch him! he musn’t pollute holy 
things!” 

But Balin quickly dove beneath the tree boughs and raced 
through miles of thick groves and open meadowland until his 
good horse, at last wearied and uncertain in his footsteps, 
stumbled over a fallen oak and threw Balin headlong. 

As Balin rose to his feet he looked at the Queen’s crown on 
his shield and then drew the shield from off his neck. “ I have 
shamed you,” he cried. “ I won’t carry you any more,” and 


102 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


he hung it up on a branch aiid threw himself on the ground in 
a passionate sleep. 

While he slept there the beautiful wicked Vivien came 
riding by through the woodland alleys with her squire, warbling 
a song. 

‘AVhat is this? ” she cried as she noticed the shield on the 
tree, “a shield with a crown upon it. And there’s a horse. 
Vliere’s the rider? Oh! there he is sleeping. Hail royal 
knight. I’m flying away from a bad king and the knight I was 
riding with was hurt, and my poor squire isn’t of much use in 
helping me. But you, Sir Prince, will surely guide me to the 
Warrior King Arthur, the Blameless, to get me some shelter.” 

“ Oh, no. I’ll never go to Arthur’s court again,” cried Balin. 
“I’m not a prince any more, or a knight. I have brought the 
Queen ’s crown to shame . ” 

Then Vivien laughed shrilly, and told Balin a wicked -story 
about the Queen which she just imagined in her wicked mind. 
But she told it so cunningly and smiled so sunnily as she talked 
that Balin believed her and he flew into the more passionate 
rage because he thought he had been deceived in the Queen 
whom he had worshipped. 

He ground his teeth together, sprang up with a yell, tore 
the shield from the branch and cast it on the ground, drove 
his heel into the royal crown, stamped and trampled upon it 
until it was all spoiled, then hurled the shield from him out 
among the forest weeds and cursed the story, the queen and 
Vivien. 

His weird yell had thrilled through the woods where Balan 
was lurking for his foe. “There! that’s the scream of the 
wood-devil I’m looking for,” he thought. “He has killed 
some knight and trampled on his shield to show his loathing 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


103 


of our order and the queen. Devil or man, whichever you 
are, take care of your head!'’ 

M ith that he made swiftly for his poor brother whom he did 



not recognize. Sir Balin spoke not a word but snatched the 
buckler from Vivien’s squire, vaulted on his horse and in a 
moment had clashed with his brother's armor. King Pel- 
lam's holy spear reddened with blood as it pricked through 
Balan's shield to his flesh. Then Balin 's horse, wearied to 
death, rolled back over his rider and crushed him inward and 
both men fell and swooned away. 


104 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


‘‘ The fools! ” cried Vivien to her young squire. “ Come, you 
Sir Chick, loosen their casques and see who they are. They 
must be rivals for the same woman to fight so hard. 

‘‘They are happy,” her gentle squire answered, “if they 
died for love. And Vivien, though you beat me like your dog 
I would die for you. ” 

“Don’t die, Sir Boy,” cried Vivien, I’d rather have a live 
dog than a dead lion. Come away, I don’t like to look at 
them,” and she made her palfrey leap off over the fallen oak 
tree. 

Balin was the first to wake from his swoon. As soon as he 
saw his brother’s face he crawled over to his side moaning. 
Then Balan faintly opened his eyes and seeing who was with 
him kissed Balin ’s forehead. 

“0 Balin,” he cried, “why didn’t you carry your own 
shield which I knew, and why did you trample all over this 
one which bears the queen’s own crown which I know?” 

So Balin slowly gasped out the whole story of his shield. 
Then they each said good-night to the other and closed their 
eyes, locked in each other’s arms. 


LANCELOT AND ELAINE. 


Long before Arthur was crowned king while he was roving 
one night over the trackless realms of Lyonesse he came upon 
a glen with a gray boulder and a lake. As he rode up the 
highway in the misty moonshine he suddenly stepped upon a 
white skeleton of a man with a crown of diamonds upon its 
skull. The skull broke off from the body and rolled away 
into the lake. Arthur alighted, reached down and picked 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


105 


up the crown and set it on his head murmuring to himself, 
''You too shall he king some day/’ for the skeleton was the 
bones of a king who had fought with his brother there and 
been killed . 



When Arthur was crowned he plucked the nine gems out of 
the crown he had found on the skeleton and showed them to 
his knights with the words: 

These jewels belong to the whole kingdom for every- 
body's use and not to the king. Hereafter there is to be joust for 
one of them every year and in that way in nine 3^ears time 
we will learn who is the mightiest in the kingdom and we will 


106 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


race with each other to become skilful in the use of arms until 
at last we shall be able to drive away the heathern horde 
from the land. ” 

Eight years had now passed and there had been eight jousts. 
Lancelot had won the diamond every year and intended when 
he had been victorious in all the, jousts, to give the nine gems 
to the queen. When the ninth year came Arthur proclaimed 
the tournament for the central and largest diamond to be held 
at Camelot, where he was holding his court. But the queen 
became ill as the time for the tour jousts drew near and he asked 
her whether she was too feeble to 'go to see Lancelot in the 
lists. 

‘'Yes, my lord,^^ replied Guinevere, “and you know it,'’ 
and she looked up languidly to Lancelot who stood near. 

Lancelot thinking that she would rather have him near 
while she was ill than to receive all the diamonds of the crown, 
said : 

“ Sir King, that old wound of mine is not quite healed so I 
can hardly ride in my saddle. ’ ’ 

So the king went, excused Lancelot, and rode away alone to 
the lists while Lancelot remained, but as soon as Arthur was 
gone the queen told Lancelot that he ought hy all means go too and 
fight. 

“But how can I go now,” replied Lancelot, “after what I 
have said to the king. ’ ’ 

“ I will tell you what to do, ” said Gunievere. “ Everybody 
says that men go down before your spear just because of your 
great name. They are afraid as soon as you appear and of 
course, they are conquered. Go in today entirely unknown 
and^win for yourself, then after all is over the king will be 
pleased with you for being so clever. ” 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


107 


Lancelot quickly got his horse and leaving the beaten 
thoroughfare, chose a green path among the downs to take 



THE QUEEN TOLD LANCELOT THAT HE OUGHT BY /V.LL MEANS FIGHT 


him to the lists. It was a new road to him however and he 
lost his way and did not know where to go until at last he 
came upon a faintly traced pathway that led to the castle 
of Astolat far away on a hill. He went thither, blew the horn 
at the gate where a dumb, wrinkled old man came to let him in. 
In the castle court he met the lord of Astolat with his two 


108 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


young sons, Sir Torre and Sir Lavaine and behind them the 
lily maiden Elaine, Astolat’s daughter. They were jesting 
and laughing as they came. 



‘‘Where do you come from, my guest, and what is your 
name?’^ asked Astolat. “By your state and presence I 
would guess you to be the chief of Arthur's court, for I have 
seen him although the other knights of the Round Table are 
strangers to me." 

Lancelot, Arthur's chief knight replied, “I am of Arthur's 
court and I am known, and my shield which I have happened 
to bring with me, is known too. But as I am going to joust 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


109 


for the diamond at Camelot as a stranger do not ask me my 
name. After it is over you shall know me and my shield. 
If you have some blank shield around, or one with a strange 
device, pray lend it to me. 

“Here is Torrens, the Lord of Astolat replied. “He was 
hurt in his first tilt and so his shield is blank enough, God 
knows. You can have his. ” 

“Yes,’’ added Sir Torre simply, “since I can’t use it you 
may have it,” 

His father laughed. “ Fie, Churl, is that an answer for a 
noble knight? You must pardon him', but Lavaine, my 
younger boy, is so full of life he will ride in the lists, joust for 
the diamond, win and bring it in one hour to set upon his 
sister’s golden hair and make her three times as wilful as be- 
fore.” 

“Oh, no, good father! don’t shame me before this noble 
knight. It was all a joke. Elaine dreamed that some one 
had put the diamond into her hand and it was so slippery it 
dropped into a pool of water. Then I told her that if I fought 
and won it for her she must keep it safer than that. But it 
was all in fun. However, if you’ll give me your leave. I’ll 
ride to Camelot with this noble knight. I shall not win but 
I’ll do my best to win. ” 

Lancelot smiled a moment. “ If you’ll give me the pleasure 
of your company over the downs where I lost myself I’ll be 
glad to have you as a friend and guide. You shall win the 
diamond if you can and then give it to your sister if you wish. ” 

“Such diamonds are for queens and not for simple little 
girls, ” said Sir Torre. 

Elaine flushed at this and Lancelot said, “ If beautiful things 


no 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


are for beautiful people this maiden may wear as fine jewels 
as there are in the world. ^ ’ 

Then the lily maid lifted her eyes and thought that Lance- 
lot was the greatest man that had ever lived. She loved his 
bruised and bronzed face seamed across with an old sword- 
cut. 

They took the pet knight of Arthur’s court into the rude 
hall of Astolat where they entertained him with their best 
meats, wines and minstrel melodies. They told him about 
the dumb old man at the gate, how ten years ago he had 
warned Astolat of the heathen fighters coming, and how they 
had all escaped to the woods and lived in a boatman’s hut by 
the river while the old man had been caught and had his tongue 
cut off. 

“Those were dull days,” said the Lord of Astolat, “until 
Arthur came and drove the heathen aWay.” 

“0, great Lord!” cried Lavaine to Lancelot, “you fought 
ill those glorious wars with Arthur. Tell us about them!” 

So LaiK clot told him all about the fight all day long at the 
white mouth of the river Glenn, the four loud battles on the 
shore of Duglas where the glorious king wore on his cuirass an 
emerald carved into Our Lady’s head. “On the mount of 
Badon,” he said, “I saw him charge at the head of all of his 
Round Table and break the heathen hosts. Afterward he 
stood on a heap of the killed, all red, from his spurs to the 
plumes of his helmet, with their blood, and he cried to me: 
‘They are broken! they are broken!’ In this heathen war the 
fire of God filled him, I never saw anyone like him, there is no 
greater leader.” 

“Except yourself,” thought the lily maid Elaine. All 
through the night she saw his dark, splendid face living before 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. Ill 

her eyes and early in the morning she arose as if to bid good- 
bye to Lavaine, stole step after step down the long tower 
stairs and passed out to the court where Lancelot was smooth- 
ing the glossy shoulders of his horse. She drew nearer and 

stood in the dewy light, 
studying his face as 
though it was a god. He 
had never dreamed she 
was so beautiful. 

‘^Fair lord,’^ said 
Elaine, ‘‘I don't know 
your name but I believe 
it is the noblest himself 
of them all. Will you 
wear a token of me at the 
tournament today?' ^ 
^‘No, pretty lady,'' said 
he," for Fve never worn 
a token of any woman in 
the lists; as everyone who 
knows me knows.' ' 

“Then by wearing 
mine you'll be less likely to be found out this time.' ' 

“That's true, my child, well, Fll wear it. Fetch it out to 
me. What is it?" 

“A red sleeve bordered with pearls," replied Elaine, and 
she went in and brought it out to him. 

Then he wound it round his helmet and said he had never 
before done so much for any girl in the world. The blood 
sprang to Elaine's face as he said that, and filled her with 



“ FAIR LORD,” SAID ELAINE. 


112 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


delight, although she grew all the paler as Lavaine came out 
and handed Sir Torre’s shield to Lancelot. Lancelot gave 
his own shield to Elaine saying, Do me this favor, child, keep 
my shield for me until I come back. ” 

“It’s a favor to me,” she replied smiling, “I’ll be your 
squire. ” 

“Come, Lily Maid, ’’cried Lavaine, “ you’ll be a lily maid 
in earnest if you don’t get to bed and have some sleep, ” and 
he kissed her good-bye. 

Lancelot kissed her hand as they moved away. She watched 
them at the gateway until their sparkling arms dipped below 
the downs, then climbed up to her tower with the shield and 
there she studied it and mused over it every day. 

Meanwhile Lancelot and Lavaine passed far over the long 
downs until they reached an old hermit who lived in a white 
rock. Here they spent the night. The next morning as they 
rode away Lancelot said, “Listen to me, but keep what I say 
a secret, you’re riding with Lancelot of the Lake. ” 

“The great Lancelot?” stammered Lavaine, catching his 
breath with surprise. “There is only one other great man to 
see, and that is Britain’s king of kings, Arthur. And he’s 
going to be at the tournament, too. ” 

As soon as they reached the lists in the meadows by Camelot, 
Lancelot pointed out the king who, as he sat in the peopled 
gallery was very easy to recognize because of his five dragons. 
A golden dragon clung to his crown, another writhed down 
his robe while two others in gilded carved wood-work formed 
the arms of his chair. The canopy above him blazed with 
the last big diamond. 

“You call me great, ” cried Lancelot, “I’m not great, there’s 
the man” 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


113 


Lavaine gaped at Arthur as if he were something miraculous. 
Then the trumpets blew. The two sides, those who held the 
lists and those who attacked them, set their lances in rest^ 
then struck their spurs, moved out suddenly and shocked 
in the center of the field. The ground shook and there was 
a low thunder of arms. Lancelot waited a little until he saw 
which was the weaker side, then sprang into the fight with 
them. In those days of his glory, whomever he struck he 
overthrew, whether they were kings, dukes, earls, counts or 
barons. But that day in the field some of his relatives were 
holding the lists who did not know him and who could not 
bear the idea that any stranger knight should out do the feats 
of their own Lancelot. 

‘^Who is this?^’ one of them asked, ‘‘IsnT it Lancelot?’^ 

“ AVhen has Lancelot ever worn a lady^s token? the others 
replied. 

“Who is it then?’' they cried, furious to guard the name of 
Lancelot. They pricked their steeds and moving all together 
bore down upon him like a wild wave that upsets a ship. One 
spear lamed Lancelot’s charger and another pierced through 
Lancelot’s side, snapped there and stuck. Lavaine now did 
splendidly for he brought a famous old knight down by Lance- 
lot’s side. Lancelot in the meantime rose to his feet in all 
his agony and by a sort of miracle as it seemed to those who 
Were on his side, drove all his opponents back to the barrier. 
Then the trumpet blew and proclaimed that the knight who 
wore the scarlet sleeve with pearls was victor. 

“ Go up and get your diamond, ’’ his men said to him. 

“ Don’t give me any diamonds, ” said Lancelot. “ My prize 
is death. I’ll leave and don’t follow ” 


114 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Then he vanished into the poplar grove where he told . 
Lavaine to draw out the lance head. 

Em afraid you’ll die, if I do, ” cried Lavaine. 

‘Tin dying now with it,” said Lancelot, so Lavaine drew 
it out and Lancelot gave a wonderful shriek and swooned 
away. 

Then the old hermit came out, carried him into the white 
rock and stanched his wound. 

Immediately after he had left the field the men of his side 
went to the king and said that the knight who had won the day 
had left without receiving his prize. 

“Such a knight as that must not go uncared for,” said 
the king. “ Gawain, ride out and find him and since he didn’t 
come for his diamond we will send it to him. Don’t leave 
your quest until you have him. ” 

Gawain the courteous was a good young knight but he 
didn’t like it that he had to leave the banquet and the king’s 
side to look for a stranger knight, so he mounted his horse 
rather crossly. He rode all round the country to every 
place except the right one, poplar grove, and at last very late 
reached the Castle of Astolat. 

“What news from Camelot?” cried Elaine as soon as she 
saw him, “ What about the knight with the red sleeve?” 

“He won.” 

“I knew it, ” she said. 

“ But he left the jousts wounded in his side. ” 

Then Elaine almost swooned away. When the Lord of 
Astolat came out and heard about Gawain’s quest, “Stay 
with us, noble prince,” said he. “For the knight was here 
and left his shield with us, so he will certainly come back or 
send for it. Besides my son is with him. ” 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


115 


Gawain thought he would have a pleasant time with Elaine 
so he stayed. But Elaine rebelled against his pretty love- 
making and asked him why he neglected the king^s quest and 
why he didn’t ask to see the knight’s shield. ” 

“I’ve lost my quest in the light of your blue eyes,” said 
Gawain, “but let me see the shield. “Ah! the king was 
right!” he cried out when Elaine showed it to him.” “It 
was our Lancelot.” 

“ I was right too, ” Elaine said merrily, “ for I dreamed that 
my knight was the greatest of them all. ” 

“And suppose that I dreamed that you love this greatest 
knight?” returned Gawain. 

“What do I know?” Elaine answered simply. “I don’t 
know whether I know what love is, but I do know that if I 
do not love him there isn’t another man whom I can love. ” 
“Yes, you love him well,” said Gawain. “And I suppose 
you know just where your greatest knight is hidden, so let me 
leave my quest with you. If you love him it will be sweet to you 
to give him the diamond and if he loves you it will be sweet 
to him to receive it from you, while even if he doesn’t love you, 
a diamond is always a diamond. Farewell a thousand times. 
If he loves you I may see you at court after while. ” 

Then Gawain lightly kissed her hand as he laid the diamond 
in it, and, wearied of his quest, leaped on his horse and carrolling 
a love-ballad airilyrode away to the court where it was soon 
buzzed abroad that a maid of Astolat loved Lancelot and that 
Lancelot loved a maid of Astolat. 

The maid meanwhile crept up to her father one day and re- 
ceived his leave to take the diamond to Sir Lancelot. Sir 
Torre went with her to the gates of Camelot where they saw 
Lavaine capering about on a horse. 


116 


TALJ<:8 FROM TENNYSON. 


“ Lavaine!^^ she cried, ‘‘how is it with iiiy lord Sir Lancelot?’^ 
and she told him about the diamond. Then Sir Torre went on 
into the city while Lavaine guided Elaine to the hermit’s cave. 
As she saw her handsome knight on the floor, a sort of skeleton 
of himself, she gave a little tender dolorous cry. 

“Your prize, the diamond, sent you by the king,” said she, 
as she put it into his hand and explained how she had received 
it from Gawain. Then he kissed her as a father would kiss a 
dear little daughter and she went back to the dim, rich city 
of Camelot for the night. But the next morning she was back 
in the cave, and day after day she came, caring for him more 
mildly, tenderly and kindly than any mother could with a 
child, until at last the old hermit said she had nursed him back 
to life, then all three rode back together one morning 
to Astolat where Lancelot asked Elaine to tell him the dearest 
wish of her heart so that he could grant it to her. Elaine 
turned as pale as a ghost when he first spoke but at last one 
day she told him. She said she wanted him to love her, she 
wanted to be his wife. 

“If I had chosen to wed,” Lancelot replied, slowl)^, “I 
would have been married long before this. But now I shall 
never marry, sweet Elaine. ” 

“No, no,” cried Elaine, “it won’t matter if I can’t be your 
wife, if I can only go with you always and go round the world 
with you and serve you. ” 

But Lancelot said that would be a poor way for him to 
requite the love and kindness her father and brothers had 
shown him. “Noble maid,” he Vent on, “this is only the 
first flash of love with you. After awhile you will smile at 
yourself about it when you find a knight who is fitter |or you 
to marry and not three times older than you as I am, and then 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


117 


I will give you broad lands and territories even to a half of 
my kingdom across the seas and V\\ always be ready to fight 
for you in your troubles. Fll do this, dear girl, but more I 
cannot. 

Of all this I care for nothing, Elaine said growing deathly 
pale and falling in a swoon. 

That evening Lancelot sent for his shield from the tower 
where Elaine sat with it, and as his horse’s hoofs clattered off 
upon the stone of the highway she looked down from her 
tower, but he did not glance back. 

After that Elaine dreamed her time sadly away in the tower 
and only wished to she could die. She begged her father to 
send for the priest to confess her and asked Lavaine to write 
a letter for her to Lancelot. Then she arranged it that when 
she died the dumb old man at the gate was to take her in the 
barge down the river to the king’s palace. Eleven days later 
this was done. Elaine was dressed like a little sleeping queen 
and floated along the stream with her letter in one hand and 
a lily in the other. 

That day Lancelot was with the queen and as he looked out 
of the casement upon the river he saw the barge hung with 
rich black samite, the dumb old man and the lily maid of 
Astolat gliding up to the palace door. 

‘AVhatis it?” cried everybody streaming round. “A pale 
fairy queen come to take Arthur to fairy land?” 

Then the king bade meek Sir Percival and pure Sir Galahad 
carry her reverently into the hall where the fine Gawain came 
and wondered at her and Lancelot came and mused over her, 
and the queen came and pitied her. But King Arthur spied 
a letter, opened it and read it aloud to all the lords and ladies. 
It was Elaine’s goodbye to Lancelot. 


118 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Then Sir Lancelot told them everything about Elaine and 
how he had promised to give her his lands and riches when she 
should be ready to marry some knight of her own age. The 



A PALE FAIRY QUEEN CAME TO TAKE ARTHUR TO FAIRY LAND. 


king said that he should see that she was buried very grandly. 
So they had a procession with all the pomp of a queen, with 
gorgeous ceremonies, mass and rolling music while all the 
Order of the Round Table followed her to the tomb. Then 
they laid the shield of Lancelot at her feet and put a lily in her 
hand. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON 


119 


THE HOLY GRAIL. 

One day a new monk came into the abbey beyond Camelot. 
There was something about him different from all the other 
monks there. He was so 
polished and cleverj that 
old Ambrosious who had 
lived in the old monastery 
for fifty years and had 
never seen a bit of the 
world guessed in a minute 
that the new brother had 
come from King Arthur's 
court. And one windy 
April morning as Ambro- 
sious stood under the yew 
tree with this gentle monk 
.he asked him why he 
left the Knights of the 
Round Table. 

Then Sir Percival an- 
swered : 

“ It was the sweet vision 
of the Holy Grail." 

‘^The Holy Grail," cried Ambrosious. “Heaven knows I 
don't know much, but what is that, the phantom of a cup that 
comes and goes?" 

“No, no,' ' said Percival, “ what phantom do you mean? It’s 
the cup that our Lord drank from at his sad last supper, and 
after he died Joseph of Aramathea brought it to Glastonbury at 
Christmas time, and there it stayed a while and every one who 



‘ THE HOLY GRAIL,” CRIED AMBROSIOUS. 


120 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


looked at it or touched it was healed of their sicknesses. 
But the times grew so wicked that the cup was caught up into 
heaven where nobody could see it.^ ^ 

‘‘Yes, I remember reading in our old books,’ ^ said Am- 
brosious, “how Joseph built alonely little churchat Glastonbury 
on the marsh, but that w,as long ago. Who first saw the vision 
of the Holy Grail to-day?” 

“ A woman,’ ’ said Sir Percival, “ a nun, my sister who was a 
holy maid if ever there was one. The old man to whom she 
used to tell her sins (or what she called her sins), often spoke 
to her about the legend of the Holy Grail which had been 
handed down through six people, each of them a hundred years 
old, from the Lord’s time. And when Arthur made the order 
of the Round Table and all hearts became clean and pure for a 
time this old man thought surely the Holy Grail would come 
back again. ‘0 Christ!’ he used to say to my sister, ‘if only 
it would come back and help all the world of its wickedness!’ 
And then my sister asked him whether it might come to her 
by prayer and fasting. 

“ ‘Perhaps/ said the father, ‘for your heart is as pure as snow.’ 

“ So she prayed and fasted until the sun shone and the wind 
blew through her and one day she sent for me. Her eyes were 
so beautiful with the light of holiness that I did not know them. 

“ ‘Sweet Brother,’ she said, ‘I have seen the Holy Grail. 
I heard a sound like a silver horn but sweeter than any music 
we can make, and then a cold silver beam of light streamed in 
through my cell, and down the beam stole the Holy Grail, 
rose red and throbbing as if it were alive. All the walls of 
my cell grew rosy red with quivering rosy colors. Then the 
music faded away, the Holy Grail vanished and the colors died 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


121 


out in the darkness. So now we know the Holy Thing is here 
again, Brother fast, too, and pray, and tell your brother- 
knights about it, then perhaps the vision may be seen by you 
all, and the whole world will be healed.^ 



“ So I told all the knights and we fasted and prayed for many 
weeks. Then my sister cut off all her long streaming silken 
hair which used to fall to her feet and out of it braided a strong 
sword belt and with silver and crimson thread she wove into it 
a crimson grail in a silver beam. Then she bound it on our 
beautiful boy knight. Sir Galahad, and said: 

“ LMy knight of heaven, go forth, for you shall see what I have 
seen and far in the spiritual city you will be crowned king.’ 


122 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Then she sent the deathless passion of her eyes through him 
and he believed what she said. 

‘ ‘ Then came a year of miracles. In our great hall there stood 
a chair which Merlin had fashioned carved with strange figures 
like a serpent and in and out among the strange figures ran a 
scroll of strange letters in a language nobody knew like a serpent. 
Merlin called it the Seat Perilous, because he said if any one 
sat in it he would get lost. And Galahad said that if he got 
lost in it he would save himself. So one summer night Sir 
Galahad sat down in the chair and all at once there was a 
cracking of the roofs above us, and a blast andtthunder, and in 
the thunder there was a cry and in the blast there was a beam 
of light seven times clearer than the daylight. Down the 
beam stole the Holy Grail all covered over with a luminous 
cloud. Then it passed away but every knight saw his brother 
knight’s faces in a glory and we all rose and stared at each other 
until at last I found my voice and swore a vow. 

“ I swore that because I had not seen the Holy Grail behind 
the cloud I would ride away a year and a day in quest of it until 
I could see it as my sister saw it. Galahad swore too, and good 
Sir Bors, and Lancelot and many others, knights, and Gawain 
louder than all the rest. 

‘^The king was not in the hall that day for he had gone out 
to help some poor maiden, but as he came back over the plains 
beyond Camelot he saw the roofs rolling in smoke and thought 
that his wonderfully dear, beautiful hall which Merlin had 
built for him so wonderfully was afire. So he rode fast and 
rushed into the tumult of knights and asked me what it all 
meant. 

‘^‘Woe is me!’ cried the king when I told him. ‘Had I 
been here you would not have sworn the vows. ’ 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


123 


^My king, ’ I answered boldly, had you been here you would 
have sworn the vows yourself. ’ 

“ ‘Yes, yes, ’ said he, ‘ are you so bold when you didn't see the 
Grail? You didn 't see farther than the cloud, and what can you 
expect to see now if you go out into the wilderness? ' 

“ ‘No, no. Lord, I didn't see the Grail, I heard the sound, I 
saw thelight and since I didn't see the holy thing I swore the 
vow that I would follow it until I did see. ’ 

“ ‘ Then he asked us, knight by knight, whether we had seen 
it and each one said, ‘No, no. Lord, that was why we swore our 
vows,' but suddenly Galahad called out, ‘But I saw the 
Holy Grail, Sir Arthur, and heard the cry, “ 0 Galahad, follow 
me:'" 

“Ah, Galahad, Galahad,' said the king, ‘the vision is for 
such as you and for your holy nun but not for these. Are 
you all Galahads or all Percivals? No, no, you are just men 
with the strength to right the wrongs and violences of the 
land. But now since one has seen, all the blind want to see. 
However, since you have made the vow, go. But oh, how 
often the distressed people of the kingdom will come into the 
hall for you to help them and all your chairs will be vacant 
while you are out chasing a fire in the quagmire ! Many of 
you, yes, most of you will never come back again! But come 
to-morrow before you go, let us have one more day of field sports 
so that before you go I can rejoice in the unbroken strength 
of the Order I have made. ' 

“So the next day there was the greatest tournament that 
Camelot had ever seen, and Galahad and I, with a strength 
which we had received from the vision, overthrew so many 
knights that all the people cheered hotly for Sir Galahad and 
Sir Percival. The next morning all the rich balconies along 


124 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


the streets of Camelot were laden with ladies and showers 
of flowers fell over us as we passed out and men and boys 
astride lions and dragons, griffins and swans at the street 
corners, called us all by name and cried, ^ God Speed ! ’ while 
many lords and ladies wept. Then we came down to the gate 
of The Three Queens and there each one went on his own way. 

I was feeling glad over my victories in the lists and thought 
the sky never looked so blue nor the earth so green. All my 
blood danced within me for I knew that I would see the Holy 
Grail. But after a while I thought of the dark warning of 
the king. I looked about and saw that I was quite alone in a 
sandy thorny place, and I thought I would die of thirst. Then 
I came to a deep lawn with a flowing brook and apple trees 
overhanging it. But while I was drinking of the water and 
eating of the apples they all turned to dust, and I was alone and 
thirsty again in among the sands and thorns. Next I saw 
a woman spinning beside a beautiful house. She rose to greet 
me and stretched out her arms to welcome me into her house 
to rest, but as soon as I touched her she fell to dust, and the 
house turned into a shed with a dead baby inside, and then it 
fell to dust too. 

“Then I rode on and found a big hill and on the top was 
a walled city, the spires with incredible pinnacles reaching up 
to the sky, and at the gateway there was a crowd of people 
who cried out to me : 

“ Welcome, Percival, you mightiest and purest of men! ’’ 

“ But when I reached the top there was no one there. I 
passed through to the ruined old city and found only one person 
a very, very old man. ‘ Where is the crowd who called out 
to me?’ I asked him. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


125 


“He could scarcely speak, but he gasped out, ‘Where are 
you from and who are you? ’ and then fell to dust. 



“Then I was so unhappy I cried. I felt as though even if I 
sliould seel he Holy Grail itself and touched it it would crumble 
into dust. From there I passed down into a deep valley, as 



126 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


low down as the city was high up, where I found a chapel with 
a hermit in a hermitage near by. I told him about all these 
phantoms. 

“ ‘You haven’t true humility, ’ he said, ‘ which is the mother 
of all virtue. You haven’t lost yourself to find yourself as 
Galahad did.’’ 

‘‘Just as he ended suddenly Sir Galahad shone before us in 
silver armor. He laid his lance beside the chapel door and 
we all went in and knelt in prayer. Then my thirst was 
quenched. But when the mass was burned I saw only the holy 
elements while Galahad saw the Holy Grail come down upon 
the shrine. 

“ ‘ The Holy Grail, ’ he said, ‘ has always been at my side ever 
since we came away, fainter in the daytime, but blood-red at 
night. In its strength I have overcome evil customs wherever 
I have gone, and have passed through Pagan lands and clashed 
with Pagan hordes and broken them down everywhere. But 
the time is very near now when I shall go into the spiritual 
city far away where some one will crown me king. Come with 
me for you will see the Holy Grail in a vision when I go.’ 

“ At the close of the day I started away with him. We came 
to a hill which only a man could climb, scarred all over with 
a hundred frozen streams, and when we reached the top there 
was a wild storm. Galahad ’s armor flashed and darkened again 
every instant with quick, thick lightnings which struck the 
dead old tree trunks on every side until at last they blazed into 
a fire. At the base was a great black swamp partly whitened 
with bones of dead men. A chain of bridges lead across it to 
the great sea, and Galahad crossed them, one after the other, 
but each one burned away as soon as he had passed over so that 
I had to stay behind. When he reached the great sea the Holy 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


127 


Grail hung over his head in a brilliant cloud. Then a boat came 
swiftly by and when the sky brightened again with the lightning 
I could see him floating away, either in a boat with full sails 
or a winged creature which was flying, I couldn’t tell which. 
Above him hung the Holy Grail rosy red without the cloud. 
I had seen the holy thing at last. When I saw Sir Galahad 
again he looked like a silver star in the sky, and beyond the 
star was the spiritual city with all her spires and gateways in a 
glory like one pearl, no larger than a pearl. From the star a 
rosy red sparkle from the Grail shot across to the city. But 
while I looked a flood of rain came down in torrents, and 
how I ever came away I don’t know, but anyway at the dawn 
of the next day I had reacheck the little chapel again. There 
I got my horse from the hermit and rode back to the gates of 
Camelot. 

‘‘Just once I met one of the other knights. That was one 
night when the full moon was rising and the pelican of Sir 
Bors’ casque made a shadow on it. I spurred on my horse, 
hailed him and we were both very glad to see each other. 

“ ‘Where is Sir Lancelot,’ he asked. ‘Have you seen him? 
Once he dashed across me very madly, maddening his horse. 
When I asked him why he rode so hotly on a holy quest he 
shouted, ‘Don’t keep me, I was a sluggard, and now I’m go- 
ing fast for there’s a lion in the way.’ Then he vanished. 
When I saw how mad he was I felt very sad for I love him, 
and I cared no more whether I saw the Holy Grail, or not; 
but I rode on until I came to the loneliest parts of the country 
where some magicians told me I followed a mocking fire. 
This vexed me and when the people saw that I quarrelled with 
their priests they bound me and put me into a cell of stones. 
I lay there for hours until one night a miracle happened. One 


12S 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


of the stones slipped away without any one touching it or 
any wind blowing. Through the gap it made I saw the 



seven clear stars which we have always called the stars of the 
Round Table and across the seven stars the sweet Grail glided 
past. Close after a clap of thunder pealed. Then a maiden 
came to me in secret and loosed me and let me go. ’ 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


129 


‘‘Sir Bors and I rode along together and when we reached 
the city our horses stumbled over heaps of ruined bits of 
houses that fell as they trod along the streets. At last brought 
us to Arthur’s hall. 

“As we came in we saw Arthur sitting on his throne with 
just a tenth of the knights who had gone out on the quest 
of the .Holy Grail standing before him, wasted and worn, also 
the knights who had stayed at home. When he saw me he 
rose and said he was glad to see me back, that he had been 
worrying about me because of the fierce gale that had made 
havoc through the town and shaken even the new strong hall 
and half wrenched the statue Merlin made for him. 

“/But the quest,’ the king went on, ‘have you seen the cup 
that Joseph brought long ago to Glastonbury?’ 

“ Then when I told him all that you have been hearing just 
now and how I was going to give up the tournament and tilt 
and pass into the quiet of the life of the monk, he answered 
not a word, but turning quickly to Gawain asked, 

“ ‘Gawain, was this quest for you?’ 

“ ‘No, Lord,’ replied Gawain, ‘not for such as I. I talked 
with a saintly old man about that and he made me very sure 
that it wasn’t for me. I was very tired of it. But I found a 
silk pavilion in the field with a lot of merry girls in it, then this 
gale tore it off from the tenting pin and blew my merry maidens 
all about with a great deal of discomfort. If it hadn’t been 
for that storm my twelve months and a day would have passed 
very pleasantly for me. ’ 

“Then Arthur turned to Sir Bors, who had pushed across 
the throng at once to Lancelot’s side, caught him by the hand 
and held it there half hidden beside him until the king spied 
them. 


130 


TALES FROM TEXX^ SOX. 


“ ‘Hail, Bors, if ever a true and loyal man could seethe Grail 
you have seen it, ’ cried Arthur. 

“ ‘Don’t ask me about it, ’ replied Sir Bors with tears in his 
eyes ‘ I may not speak about it; I saw it. ’ 

“The others spoke only about the perils of their storm, and 
then it was Lancelot’s turn. Perhaps Arthur kept his best 
for the last. 

“‘My Lancelot,’ said the king, *our Strongest, has the 
quest availed for you?’ 

“‘Our strongest, 0 King!’ groaned Lancelot and as he 
paused I thought I saw a dying fire of madness in his eyes. 
‘ 0 King, my friend, a sin lived in me that was so strange that 
everything pure, noble and knightly in me twined and clung 
around it until the good and the poisonous in me grew to- 
gether, and when your knights swore to make the quest I 
swore only in the hope that could I see or touch the Holy 
Grail they might be pulled apart. Then I spoke to a holy 
saint who said that if they could not be plucked apart my 
quest would be all in vain. So I vowed to him that I would 
do just as he told me, and while I was out trying to tear them 
away from each other my old madness came back to me and 
whipped me off into waste fields far away. 

“There I was beaten down by little knights whom at one 
time I would have frightened away just by the shadow of my 
spear. From there I rode over to the sea-shore where such 
a blast of wind began to blow that you could not hear the 
waves even although they were heaped up in mountains and 
drove the sea like a cataract, while the sand on the beach 
swept by like a river. A boat, half-swallowed by the seafoam, 
was moored to the shore by a chain. I said to myself that I 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


131 


would embark in the boat and lose myself and wash away my 
sin in the great sea. 

“For seven days I rode around over the dreary water and on 
the seventh night I felt the boat striking ground. In front of 
me rose the enchanted towers of Carbonek, a castle like a rock 
upon a rock, with portals open to the sea and steps that met 
the waves. A lion sat on each side of them. I went up the 
steps and drew my sword. Suddenly flaring their manes the 
lions stood up like men and gripped me on my shoulders. 
When I was about to strike them a voice said to me, ‘Don’t 
be afraid, or the beasts will tear you to pieces; go on.’ Then 
my sword was dashed violently from my hand and fell. Up 
into the sounding hall I passed but saw not a bench, table, 
picture, shield or anything else except the moon over the sea 
through the oriel window, but I heard a sweet voice as clear 
as a lark singing in the topmost tower to the east. I climbed 
up a thousand steps with great pain. It seemed as though I 
was climbing forever but at last I reached a door with light 
shining through the crannies and I heard voices singing ‘ Glory 
and joy and honor to our Lord and the Holy Vessel, the 
Grail.; 

“ ‘Then I madly tried the door, it gave way and through 
a stormy glare of heat that burned me and made me swoon 
away I thought I saw the Grail, all veiled with crimson samite 
and around it great angels, awful shapes and wings and eyes!’ 

“ The long hall was silent after Lancelot was done, until airy 
Gawain began with a sudden. 

“ ‘ 0 King, my liege, my good friend Percival and your 
holy nun have driven men mad. By my eyes and ears I swear 
I’ll be deeper than a blue-eyed cat and three times as blind 


132 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


as any owl at noon-time hereafter to any holy virgins in their 
ecstasies. ’ 

“ ‘Gawain/ replied the king, ‘don’t try to become blinder; 
you’re too blind now to want to see. If a sign really came 
from heaven Bors, Lancelot and Percival are blessed for they 
have each seen according to their sight. ’ ” 


PELLEAS AND ETTARRE. 


When his knights went after the Holy Grail Arthur made 
many new knights to fill the gaps made by their absence. 
As he sat in his hall one day at old Caerleon the high doors 
were softly parted and through these in came a youth, and 
with him the outer sunshine and the sweet scent of meadows. 

“Make me your knight. Sir King!” he cried, “because I 
know all about everything that belongs to a knight and be- 
cause I love a maiden. ’ 

This youth was Sir Pelleas-of-the-Isles who had heard that 
the king had proclaimed a great tournament at Caerleon with 
a sword for the victor and a golden crown for the victor’s 
sweetheart as the prize. He longed to win them, the circlet 
for his lady love, the sword for himself. 

Just a few days before, while riding across the Forest of 
Dean to find the king’s palace hall at Caerleon, Pelleas had 
felt the sun beating on his helmet so sharply that he reeled 
and almost fell from his horse. Then, seeing a hillock near 
by overgrown with stately beech trees and flowers here and 
there beneath, he tied his horse to a tree, threw himself down 
and was very soon lost in sweet dreams about a maiden, not 
any particular maiden for he had no sweetheart at that time. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


133 


But suddenly he was wakened with a sound of chatter and 
laughing at the outskirts of the grove, and glancing through 
fern he saw a party of young girls in many colors like the 



WAS VERY SOON LOST IN SWEET DREAMS ABOUT A MAIDEN. 

clouds at sunset, all of them riding on richly dressed horses. 
They were all talking together in a hodgepodge, some pointing 
this way, some that, for they had lost their way. 

Pelleas sprang up, loosed his horse and led him into the 
light. 

‘‘Just in time!^^ cried the lady who seemed to be the leader 
of the party. “See, our pilot :star! Youth, we are wandering 
damsels riding armed, as you see, ready to tilt against the 


134 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


knights at Caerleon, but we’ve lost our way. To the right? 
to the left? straight on? forward? backward? which is it? tell 
us quickly.” 

Pelleas gazed at her and wondered to himself whether the 
famous Queen Guinevere herself was as beautiful as this 
maiden. For her violet eyes, scornful eyes, were large and 
the bloom on her cheeks was like the rosy dawn. Her beauty 
made Pelleas timid and when she spoke to him he could 
not answer but only stammered, for he, had come from far 
away waste islands where besides his sisters, he had scarcely 
known any women but the tough wives of the islands who 
made fish nets. 

With a slow smile the lady turned round to her companions 
the smile spreading to them all. For she was Ettarre, a 
very great lady in her land. 

0, wild man of the woods,” she cried, “don’t you under- 
stand our language, or has heaven given you a beautiful face 
and no tongue?” 

“Lady,” he answered, “I just woke from my dreams, and 
coming out of the gloomy woods I was dazzled by the sudden 
light, and beg your pardon. But are you going to Caerleon 
I’m going too. Shall I lead you to the king?” 

“ Lead, ” said she. 

So through the woods they went together but his tender 
manner, his awe of her and his bashfulness bothered her. ‘ ^ I’ve 
lighted on a fool,” she muttered to herself,” so raw and yet 
so stale!” 

But since she wished to be crowned the Queen of Beauty 
in the king’s tournament, and since Pelleas looked strong 
she thought perhaps he would fight for her, so she flattered 
him and was very pleasant and kind. Her three knights and 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


135 


maidens were kind to him too, for she was a very great lady 
and they had to do as she did. When they reached Caerleon 
before she passed on to her lodgings she took Pelleas by the 
hand and said: t 



SHK TOOK PELLEAS BY THE HAND. 


how strong your hand is! See; look at my poor little 
weak one! Will you fight for me and win me the crown, Pel- 
leas, so that I may love you?’’ 

Pelleas’ heart danced. ‘^Yes! Yes!” he cried, ^^and will 
you love me if I win?” 

'‘Yes, that I will,” answered Ettarre laughing and flinging 
away his hand as she peeped round to her knights and ladies 
until they all laughed with her. 


136 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


‘^0 what a happy world!"’ thought glad Pelleas, ‘‘every- 
body seems happy and I am the happiest of all. ” 

He couldn’t sleep that night for joy and on the next day 
wnen he was knighted he swore to love one maiden only. 
As he came away from the king’s hall the men who met 
him all turned around to look at his face, for it flamed with 
happiness, and at the great banquets which Arthur gave to 
knights from all parts of the country Pelleas looked the noblest 
of the noble. For he dreamed that his lady loved him and 
he knew that he was loved by the king. 

On the morning when the jousts began the first that was 
called was the tournament of youth. Arthur wanted to 
keep the older, stronger men out of it so that young Pelleas 
might win his lady’s love as she had promised, and be lord 
of the tourney. Down by the field along the river Usk where 
it was held the gilded parapets were crowned with faces and 
the great tower filled with eyes up to its top. Then the 
trumpets blew for the tournament to begin. 

All day long Sir Pelleas held the field. At the close a shout 
rang round the galleries as Ettarre caught the gold crown 
from his lance and crowned herself before all the people. Her 
eyes sparkled as she looked at him, but that was the last time 
she was kind to her knight. 

She lingered a few days at Caerleon, sunny to all the other 
people but always frowning at him. 

Still when she left for home with her knights and maidens 
Sir Pelleas followed. 

“ Damsels, ” cried she as she saw him coming, ‘‘ I ought to be 
ashamed to say it and yet T can’t bear that Sir Baby. Keep 
him back with yourselves. Fd rather have some rough old 
knight who knows the ways of the world to chatter and joke 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


137 



ettarre crowned herself before all the people. 


138 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


with; so don’t let him come near me. Tell him all sorts of 
baby fables that good mothers tell their little boys, and if he 
runs off for us — it doesn’t matter. ” 

So the young women didn’t let him go near Ettarre but 
made him stay with them, and as soon as they had all passed 
into Ettarre’s castle gate up sprang the drawbridge, down 
rang the iron grating, and Sir Pelleas was left outside all alone. 

‘'These are only the ways of ladies with their lovers when 
the ladies want to find out whether the lovers are true or not. 
Well, she can try me with anything. I’ll be true through all. ” 

So he stayed there until dark, .then went to a priory not far 
off and the next morning came back. Every day he did the 
same whether it rained or shone, armed on his charger, and 
stayed all the day beneath the walls, although nobody opened 
the gate for him. 

This made Ettarre’s scorn turn to anger. She told her three 
knights to go out and drive him away. But when they came 
out Pelleas overthrew them all as they dashed upon him one" 
after the other. So they went back inside and he kept his 
watch as before. This turned Ettarre’s anger into hate. As 
she walked on top of the walls with her three knights about a 
week later she pointed down to Pelleas and said : 

‘‘He haunts me, look, he besieges me! I can’t breathe. 
Strike him down, put my hate into your blows and drive 
him away from my walls.” 

So do^vn they went but Pelleas overthrew them all again 
so Attarre called down from the tower above, " Bind him and 
bring him in.” 

Pelleas heard her say this so he did not resist, but let the 
men bind him and take him into his lady love. “ See me, Lady, 
he said cheerily, “your prisoner, and if you keep me in your 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


139 


dungeon here Ell be quite content if you'll' just let me see your 
face every day. For Eve sworn my vows and you've given 
me your promise and I know that when you've done proving 
me you will give me your love and have me for your knight. " 

But she made fun of his vows and told her knights to put 
him outside again and ^^if he isn't a fool to the middle of his 
bones," said she, ‘‘he'll never come back." Then the three 
knights laughed and thrust him out of the gates. 

But a week later Ettarre called them again, “ He's watching 
there yet. He comes just like a dog that's been kicked out of 
his master's door. Don’t you hate him? Go after him, all 
of you at once, and if you don't kill him bind him as you did 
before and bring him in. " 

So the three knights couched their spears all together, three 
against one, ready to dash upon Pelleas, low down beneath 
the shadow of the towers. 

Gawain passing by on a lonely adventure saw them. 

“The villains!" he shouted to Pelleas, “Ell strike for you!" 

“No," cried Pelleas, “when one's doing a lady’s will one 
doesn't need any help. " 

Gawain stood by quivering to fight while the three knights 
sprang down upon Pelleas, but Pelleas all alone beat the three 
of them together. Then they rose to their feet, and he stood 
still while th^y bound him and took him into their lady. 

“You're scarcely fit to touch your victor, you dogs!" she 
cried to her men, “far less bind him; but take him out as he 
is and let whoever wants to untie him. Then if he comes 
again — " 

She paused just a minute and P( Ileas broke in at once with, 
“ Lady, I loved you and thought you very beautiful, but if you 


140 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


don’t love me don’t trouble yourself about it; you wont see 
me again. ” 

As soon as Pelleas was put outside the gate Gawain sprang 
forward, loosed his bonds, flung them over the walls and cried 
out: 

^‘My faith, and why did you let those wretches tie you up 
so when you were victor of all the jousts?” 

0, ” said Pelleas, “ they were just obeying the wishes of my 
lady, and her wishes are mine. ” 

Gawain laughed. ‘‘Lend me your horse and armor,” he 
said, “and I’ll tell her I’ve killed you. Then she’ll let me in 
just to hear all about it and when I’ve made her listen I’ll 
tell her all about you, what a great and good fellow you are. 
Give me three days to melt her and on the third evening I’ll 
bring you golden news. ” 

“Don’t betray me,” cried Pelleas, as he handed over his 
horse and all his weapons except his sword. “Aren’t you the 
knight they call ‘ Light-of-love ?’ ” 

“That is just because women are so light,’ ’ Gawain rejoined, 
laughing.’ ’ 

Then he rode up to the castle gate, and blew the bugle so 
musically that all the hidden echoes in the vralls rang out. 

“Away with you!” cried Ettarre’s maidens, running up to 
the tower window. “ Our lady doesn’t love you.’ ’ 

“ I’m Gawain from Arthur’s court,” cried Gawain, lifting 
his vizor so that they could see his face. “ I’ve killed Pelleas 
whom you hate so. Open the gates and I’ll make you merry 
with my story.’ ’ 

The ladies ran down crying out to Ettarre, “ Pelleas is dead! 
Sir Gawain of Arthur’s court has killed him and is blowing 
the bugle to come in to tell us.’ ’ 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


141 


Let him in/ ' said Ettarre. 

Then they opened the gates and Gawain rode inside. 

For three days Pelleas wandered all about, doing nothing 
but thinking of Gawain and Ettarre, and on the third night, 
when Gawain did not come, he wondered why Gawain lingered 
with his golden news. At last he rode up to Ettarre^s castle, 
tied his horse outside and walked in through the wide open 
gates. The court he found all dark and empty, not a light 
glimmering from anywhere, so he passed out by the back gate, 
into the large gardens beyond of red and white roses, where he 
saw three pavilions. In one he found the three knights with 
their squires, all red with revelling, and all asleep, in the sec- 
ond he saw the girls with their scornful smiles frozen stiff in 
slumber, and in the third lay Gawain with Ettarre, the golden 
crown he had won for her at the joust on her forehead, both 
sleeping. 

Pelleas drew back as if he had touched a snake. 

I’ll kill them just as they lie,” he cried in a passion. 0! 
to think that any knight could be so false!” 

But he was too manly to kill anyone in sleep, so he just laid 
his sword across their throats and passed out to his horse,, 
crushed his saddle with his thighs, clenched his hands together 
and groaned. 

^‘I loathe her now just as much as I loved her!” he cried, 
and dashing his spurs into his horse he bounded out into the 
darkness and never came back. 

Meanwhile Ettarre, feeling the cold sword on her neck, 
awoke. 

Liar !’ ’ she cried to Gawain, as she saw that it was the sword 
of Pelleas, '‘you haven’t killed Pelleas, for he’s been here and 
could have killed us both just now.’ ’ 


142 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


f And ever after that, as those who tell the story say, the proud 
and scornful Ettarre sighed for Pelleas, the one true knight in 
the world, her only faithful lover, and at last pined away be- 
cause he never came back. 

THE LAST TOURNAMENT. 

One day while^King Arthur and Sir Lancelot were riding 
far, far beneath a winding wall of rock they heard the wail 
of a child. 

A half-dead oak tree climbed up the sides of the rock and 
up in mid-air it held an eagle’s nest. Through its branches 
rushed a rainy wind and through the wind came the voice of 
a little child. Lancelot sprang up the crag and from the nest 
at the tree-top he brought down a baby girl. Round her neck 
was twined a necklace of rubies, wound round and round three 
times. 

Arthur took the baby and gave it to Queen Guinevere, who 
soon loved it very tenderly and named her “Nestling.” But 
Nestling had caught a terrible cold in her strange little home 
in the wild eagle’s nest and died. And after that whenever 
the Queen looked at the. .ruby necklace it made her very sad 
so she gave it to Arthur and said : 

“Take these jewels of our Dead Innocence and make them 
a prize at a tournament. ’ ’ 

“Just as you wish,” cried the King,” but why don’t you 
wear the diamonds that I found for you in the tarn, which 
Lancelot won for you at the jousts?” 

“Don’t you know that they slipped out of my hands the 
very day that he gave^ them to me, while I was leaning out of 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


143 


the window to see Elaine in the barge on the river? But these 
rubies will bring better luck than that to the lady who gets 
them, for they didn’t come from a dead king’s skeleton, but 
from the body of a sweet baby girl. Perhaps, who knows, the 
purest of your knights will win them at the jousts for the 
purest of my ladies.” 

So the great jousts were proclaimed with trumpets that blew 
all along the streets of Camelot and out across the faded fields 
to the farthest towers, and everywhere the knights . armed 
themselves for a day of glory before the king. 

But just the day before they were to be held, as King 
Arthur sat in his great hall, a churl staggered in through the 
door; his face was all striped with the lashes of a dog whip, 
his nose was broken, one eye was out, a hand was off and the 
other hand dangled at his side with shattered fingers. 

‘‘My poor Churl,” cried the king, full of indignant pity, 
“ what beast or fiend has been after you? Or was it a man 
who hurt you so?” 

“He took them all away,” sputtered the churl, “a hundred 
good ones. It was the Red Knight. He — Lord, I was tend- 
ing sheep, my pigs, a hundred good ones, and he drove them 
all off to his tower. And when I said that you were always 
kind to poor churls like me as well as gentle lords and ladies, 
he made for me and would have killed me outright if he didn’t 
want me to bring you message and made me swear that I would 
tell you. 

“ He said, ‘Tell the king that I have made a Round Table 
of my own in the North, and that whatever his knights swear 
not to do mine swear that they will do ; and tell him his hour 
has come, and that the heathen are after him, and that his long 
lance is broken, and that his sword Excalibur is a straw. ’ ’ ’ 


144 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Then Arthur turned to Sir Kay the Seneschal and said: 
“Take this churl of mine and tend him very carefully as if he 
were the son of a king until all his hurts are healed/’ and as 
Sir Kay left the hall with the churl the king went on to Lan- 
celot: “The heathen have been quiet for a long, long time, 
but now they are rising again in the North, and I will go with 
my younger knights to put them down, so as to make the 
whole island safe from one shore to the other. And while I go 
away, you. Sir Lancelot, will sit in my chair to-morrow at the 
tournament and be the judge there of the field. For why 
should you anyway care to go in again yourself, when you’ve 
already won the nine diamonds for the queen?” 

“Very well,” replied Lancelot, “if you wish, although it 
would be better if you would let me go off with the younger 
knights and you stay here with the others and watch the tour- 
nament. But, if not, all is well?” 

“ Is all really w^ell?” cried the king, “or have I just dreamed 
that our knights are not quite so true and manly as they used 
to be and that my noble realm which has been built up by 
noble deeds and noble vows is going to fall back into beastly 
roughness and violence again?” 

He gathered all the younger Knights of the Round Table 
together and started away with them down the hilly streets 
of Camelot, and at the gateway turned sharply North. 

The next morning, the day of the Tournament, the Tourna- 
ment of the Dead Innocence they called it, a wet wind blew. 
But the streets were hung with white samite, the fountains 
were filled with wine, and round each fountain twelve little 
girls, all dressed m purest white sat with the cups of gold and 
gave drinks to all that passed. The stately galleries were 
filled with white-robed ladies. Lancelot mounted the steps 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 145 

to the king's dragon-carved chair, the trumpets blew and the 
jousts began. ^ 



TWELVE LITTLE GIRLS GAVE DRINK TO ALL WHO PASSED. 


But Lancelot did not think of the sport before him, he was 
dreaming over and over again the words of the king about the 
kingdom, and many rules of the tournament were broken, and 
he didn’t say a word. Once one of the knights, who was over- 
thrown cursed the little baby girl, the d^ad innocence, and 
the king, and once one of the knight’s helmets became un- 


146 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


laced and the wicked face of Mordred peeped through like a 
vermin, but Lancelot didn’t see. 

After a while a roar of welcome shouted all round the gal- 
leries and lists as a new knight came in dressed from his head 
to his feot in green armor all trimmed with tiny silver deer, 
with holly berries on his helmet crest. It was Sir Tristram 
of the Woods who had just cro§sed over the seas from Brittany. 
Lancelot had fought with him long ago and conquered him, 
and now he saw him and longed to fight him again. As many, 
many knights of the Round Table fell down before the new 
knight Lancelot gripped the golden dragons on each side of 
his throne to keep himself in his seat, and groaned with passion. 
‘‘Craven crests! oh, shame!” he muttered, “the glory of the 
Round Table is gone.” 

So Tristram won the jousts and Sir Lancelot gave him the 
jewels. 

“The hands with which you take these rubies are red,” he 
said as he put the necklace in Tristram’s hands. 

Then the thick rain began to fall, the plumes on the helmets 
of the knights drooped and the dresses of the ladies were mussed. 
When they went inside to feast the ladies took off their pure 
white gowns and robed themselves in all the colors of the 
rainbow and field flowers, like poppies, blue-bells, kingcups, 
and one said she was glad the time to wear the pure innocent 
simple white was over. They grew so loud in their frolics 
that at last the queen, who was angry that Sir Tristram had 
won the prize and angry with the lawless youths, broke up the 
banquet. 

The next morning as Sir Tristram stood before the hall little 
Dagonet, the fool, came dancing along and Sir Tristram threw 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


147 


his rubies round the little fool’s neck as he skipped about like 
a withered leaf, asking him why he danced. 

'‘It’s stupid to dance 
without music,” Tristram 
said, and picked up his harp 
and began to twangle a tune 
on it; but as soon as Sir 
Tristram began to play 
Dagonet stopped his dance. 
“And why don’t you go on 
skipping^ Sir Fool?” asked 
Tristram. I 

“Because I’d- rather skip 
twenty years to the music 
of my little brain than skip 
a minute to the broken music 
you make.” 

“And what music have I 

•" ■ broken?” cried Sir Tristram. 

"Arthur the King’s 
music,” cried little Dagonet, 
skipping again and again as 
Sir Tristram ceased. Then 
down the city he danced all the way, while Sir Tristram 
passed out into the lonely avenues of the forests. He rode 
on toward Lyonesse and the West, thinking of Isolt, the 
White, whom he loved, and how he would put the rubies 
round her neck. 

Arthur, meanwhile, with his hundred spearmen had gone 
far, far away, until at last over the countless reeds of marshes 
and islands he saw a huge tower glaring in the wide-winged 
sunset of the West. As he drew near he saw that the tower 



LI^ITLE DAGONET SKIPPING AGAIN 
AND AGAIN. 


148 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


doors stood open and heard roars of rioting and wicked songs 
of ruffian men and women. 

‘‘ Look,” cried one of his knights, for there high on a grim 
dead tree before the tower, a brother of the Round Table was 
swinging by his neck, his shield flowing with a shower of blood 
on a branch near by. 

All the knights wanted to dash forward and blow the great 
horn that hung beside the gate, but Arthur waved them back 
and went himself. He blew so hard that the horn roared until 
all the grasses of the marshes flared up, and out of the castle 
gate sallied a knight dressed from tip to toe in blood-red 
arms, the Red Knight. 

Aren’t you the king?” he bellowed, ‘‘the king that keeps 
us all with such strict vows that we can’t have any pleasures, 
a milky-hearted king? Look to your life now ! ’ ’ 

Arthur scorned to speak to so vile a man or to fight him with 
his sword. He simply let the drunkard, stretching out from 
his horse to strike, fall head-heavy, over from the castle cause- 
way to the swamp below. 

Then all the Round Table Knights roared and shouted, 
leaped down on the fallen man, trampled out his face in the 
mire, sank his head so that it could not be seen, and, still 
shouting, sprang through the open doors among the people 
within. They hurled their swords right and left on men and 
women, hurled over the tables and the wines and slew and 
slew until all the rafters rang with yells and all the pavements 
streamed with blood. Then they set the tower all afire and half 
the night through it flushed the long low meadows and marsh- 
lands and lazily plunging sea with its flames. That was how 
Arthur made the ways of the island safe from one shore to the 
other. 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


149 


Sir Tristram, not many nights after, reached Tintagil, where 
Isolt,the White, lived in a crown of towers, where she now sat 
with the low sea-sunset glorying her hair and glossy throat, 
thinking of him and of Mark, her Cornish lord. 

When Tristram’s footsteps came grinding up the tower 
steps she flushed, started out to meet him and threw her white 
arms about him. 

‘‘Not Mark, not Mark!” she cried. “ At first your footsteps 
fluttered me, for Mark steals into his own castle like a cat.” 

“ No, it’s I,” said Sir Tristram, and don’t think about your 
Mark any more, for he isn’t yours any longer.’ 

“But listen,” she cried, “to-day he went away for a three 
days’ hunt, he said, and that means that he may be back in 
an hour for that’s his way. My God, my hate for him is as 
strong as my love for you. Let me tell you how I sat here 
one evening thinking of you, one black midsummer night, 
all alone, dreaming of you, and sometimes speaking your name 
aloud, when suddenly there Mark stood behind me, for that’s 
his way to steal behind one in the dark. 

“ ‘Tristram has married her!’ he hissed out and then this 
tower shook with such a roar that I swooned away. ’ ’ 

“Come,’^ cried Sir Tristram, laughing, “never mind. I’m 
hungry, give me some meat and wine.” 

So they ate and drank, talked and laughed about Mark with 
his long crane-like legs, and Sir Tristram took a harp and sang 
a song. Then while the last light of the day glimmered away 
he swung the ruby necklace before Isolt. 

“ It’s the fruit of a magical oak-tree that grew mid air,” he 
cried, “and was won by Sir Tristram as a tourney prize to 
bring to you. ’ ’ 

Flinging the rubies round her neck he had just touched her 


m TALES FROM TENNYSON. 

jeweled throat with his lips when behind him rose a shadow 
and a shriek. 

‘‘Mark’s way!” cried Mark, the Cornish king, and he clove 
Tristram through the brain. 


That very night Arthur came back from the North, and as 
he climbed up the tower steps to go to the queen, in the dark 
of the tower something pulled at him. It was little Dagonet. 

“ Who are you?” said the king. 

“I’m little Dagonet, your fool,” sobbed the little jester,” 
“ and I cry because I can never make you laugh again. ’ ’ 


THE PASSING OF ARTHUR. 


One night King Arthur saw Sir Gawain in a dream, and 
Gawain,who had been killed, shrilly called out to him through 
the wind : 

“Hail King! to-morrow you are going to pass away, and 
there’s a land of rest for you. Farewell!” 

But when Arthur told his dream to Sir Bedivere, good old 
SirBedivere replied, “Don’t mind what dreams tell 3^011, but 
get your knights together and go' out to the West to meet Sir 
Modred, who has stirred up against you so many of the knights 
you love. They all know in their hearts that you are king. 
Go and conquer them as of old. ’ ’ 

So the king took his army by night and pushed upon Modred 
league after league, until they reached the Western part of 
L^mnesse where the long mountains ended in the moaning 
sea. There Modred ’s men could flee no farther, so on the 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


151 


waste lands by the barren sea they began that last dim weird 
battle of the West. 

A white chill mist slept over all the land and water so that 
even Arthur became confused since he could not see which were 
his friends and which were his foes. Friends killed friends, 
some saw the faces of old ghosts looking in upon the battle. 
Spears were splintered, shields were broken, swords clashed, 
helmets were shattered, men shrieked and looked up to heaven 
for help but saw only the white, white mists. There .were 
cries for light and moans. 

At last toward the close of the day a hush fell over the whole 
shore; a bitter wind from the North blew the mist aside and 
the pale king looked across the battlefield. But no one was 
there only the waves breaking in among the dead faces. 

But bold Bedivere said: “‘My King! the man who hales 
you stands there, Modred, the traitor of your house ’ 

“Don't call this traitor a person of my house,” the king 
replied. “The men of my house are not those who have 
lived under one roof with me, but those who always call me 
their king. ’ ' 

With that, Arthur dashed after Modred. Modred struck 
at the king's helmet, which had grown thin with all his 
heathen wars. Arthur with his sword Excalibur struck 
Modred dead, then fell down himself almost killed with the 
wound through his helmet. 

Sir Bedivere lifted him up and carried him to a chapel near 

by. 

“Take my sword, Excalibur,” said the King, “and fling 
it out into the middle of the sea, watch what happens to it and 
then come back at once and tell me. ” 

“ It doesn’t seem right to leave you all alone here,” said Sir 


152 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


Bedivere, “when you are wounded and ill, but since you wish 
me to go, I will, and will do all that you have told me. ” 

He slipped away by zigzag paths, points and jutting rock 
to the shining level of the sea. There he drew out the sword 
Excalibur. The winter moon sparkled against its hilt and 
made it twinkle with its diamond sparks, with myriads of 
topaz lights and fine jewelry work. Bedivere gazed so long 
at it that both his eyes were dazzled as he stood, and he won- 
dered whether he ought to throw away so beautiful a thing. 
At last he decided to hide it away among the water-flags that 
grew along shore. 

“Did you do as I said?” asked the king, when he saw him. 
“ What did you see?” 

“ I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,” said Sir Bedivere, 
“and the wild water lapping on the rock.” 

“You are not giving me a true answer,” said the king, 
faint and pale. “It’s shameful for men to lie. Quickly go 
again and as you are true and dear, do just as I bade you. 
Watch and bring me word.” 

Then Sir Bedivere went the second time and paced up and 
down beside the pebbly water, counting the dewey pebbles, 
but when he saw the wonderful sword he clapped his hands 
together and cried : 

“ If I threw that sword away, a precious thing will be lost 
forever. The King is ill; he does not know what he is doing. 
His great sword ought to be kept, then in long years hereafter 
people will look at it at the tournament and they will say: 
‘This was the great Arthur’s sword Excalibur which was made 
by the lonely lady of the Lake, working in the deep sea for nine 
years. ’ ! 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


153 


So the second time he hid Excalibur and strode very slowly 
back to the king. 

What did you see or what did you hear?^’ asked Arthur 
breathing very heavily. 

“I heard the water lapping on the rock and the long 
ripples washing in the reeds. 

'^Unkind! miserable! untrue! unknightly!^^ cried Arthur, 
filled with anger. see what you are, for you are the only 
one left me of all the knights, yet you would betray me for my 
sword, either to sell it or like a girl, because you love its beauty. 
Go out now the third time and if you do not throw out my 
sword Excalibur Idl get up and kill you with my hands. 

At this Sir Bedivere sprang up like a flash and ran down 
leaping lightly over the ridges, plunged into the beds of bul- 
rushes, clutched the sword, wheeled it round strongly and 
threw it as far as he could. 

Excalibur made lightning in the moonlight as it flashed 
round and round and whirled in an arch, shooting far out to 
the water. But before it quite dipped into the sea an arm 
robed in white samite, mystic and wonderful, rose out of the 
waves, caught it by the hilt, brandished it three times and 
drew it under. 

“Now I can see by your eyes that you have done it!’’ cried 
the King. “Speak out; what have you seen or heard?” 

“Sir King,” cried Sir Bedivere, “I closed my eyes when I 
picked it up so that I would not be turned from my purpose 
of throwing it into the water, for I could live three lives. Sir 
King, and I wouldn’t again see such a wonderful thing as your 
sword. Sir I threw it out with both hands, wheeling it round 
and when I looked an arm robed in white samite reached up 


154 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


out of the water and caught it by the hilt, brandished it three 
times and drew it under. ’ ’ 

“ Carry me to the shore,’’ said the king. 



So Bedivere lifted him up and walked as swiftly as he could 
from the ridge, heavily, heavily down to the beach. As they 
reached the shore they saw a black barge beside the water 
filled with stately people all dressed in black. Among the peo- 
ple were three queens wearing crowns of gold. 

‘‘ Put me into the barge, ” cried Arthur. 

So they came to the barge and the three queens held out 
their hands and took the king. 

The tallest and fairest of them held his head upon her lap 
loosed his shattered helmet and chafed his hands, and moaned 
tenderly over him. 

“Ah, my lord Arthur, ” cried Sir Bedivere “ where shall I go 


TALES FROM TENNYSON. 


155 


now? For the old times are past now and the whole Round 
Table is broken. 

‘‘ Go and pray, ’’ cried the king. “ Farewell, for I am going 
a very long way to the lovely Island-valley of Avilion where 
it will never hail nor rain nor snow, and where the loud winds 
never blow. It lies in deep meadows, beautiful with lawns 
and fruit trees and flowery glens. ’’ 

Then the barge set sail and oar, and moved away from the 
shore. 

‘ ‘ The king is gone ! ’ ’ groaned Bedivere. 

He walked away from the shore and climbed up to the 
highest peaks and ridges about him and looked far, far away. 
And from far away out beyond the world he thought he heard 
sounds from a beautiful city as if every one in it all together 
were welcoming a great King who had just come back from 
his wars 


END 



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